Boris Johnson's mass Covid-19 testing plan hit another hurdle after leaked emails showed officials raised urgent concerns about the accuracy of rapid test kits.
The prime minister last week urged everyone in England to take two rapid tests a week as the country comes out of lockdown.
The scheme is one of the biggest expansions of the multibillion-pound testing regime to date.
However, officials are now understood to be considering winding back the testing of people without symptoms with lateral flow devices because of growing concerns over the number of false positive results.
An email leaked to The Guardian newspaper estimates that as few as 2 per cent to 10 per cent of positive results are accurate.
Ben Dyson, an executive director at NHS Improvement, cited a “fairly urgent need for decisions” on when to “stop offering asymptomatic testing”.
“As of today, someone who gets a positive LFD result in (say) London has at best a 25 per cent chance of it being a true positive, but if it is a self-reported test potentially as low as 10 per cent (on an optimistic assumption about specificity) or as low as 2 per cent (on a more pessimistic assumption),” he wrote in an email on April 9, the day the mass distribution of the tests began.
He said that officials would need to decide at what point asking someone to self-isolate for 10 days after a positive result from the test kits “ceases to be reasonable”.
Prof John Simpson, from Public Health England, suggested there was not enough evidence to suggest the scheme would reduce the spread of the virus.
“We are a little concerned,” he wrote.
Britain’s Department for Health said there were no plans to halt the distribution of rapid tests.
“With around one in three people not showing symptoms of Covid-19, regular, rapid testing is an essential tool to control the spread of the virus as restrictions ease, by picking up cases that would not otherwise have been detected,” it said.
Mr Johnson said last week rapid tests were a key pillar of the government's post-lockdown strategy, as were vaccinations.
“As we continue to make good progress on our vaccine programme and with our road map to cautiously easing restrictions under way, regular rapid testing is even more important to make sure those efforts are not wasted,” he said.
“That’s why we’re now rolling out free rapid tests to everyone across England – helping us to stop outbreaks in their tracks, so we can get back to seeing the people we love and doing the things we enjoy.”
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
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One in nine do not have enough to eat
Created in 1961, the World Food Programme is pledged to fight hunger worldwide as well as providing emergency food assistance in a crisis.
One of the organisation’s goals is the Zero Hunger Pledge, adopted by the international community in 2015 as one of the 17 Sustainable Goals for Sustainable Development, to end world hunger by 2030.
The WFP, a branch of the United Nations, is funded by voluntary donations from governments, businesses and private donations.
Almost two thirds of its operations currently take place in conflict zones, where it is calculated that people are more than three times likely to suffer from malnutrition than in peaceful countries.
It is currently estimated that one in nine people globally do not have enough to eat.
On any one day, the WFP estimates that it has 5,000 lorries, 20 ships and 70 aircraft on the move.
Outside emergencies, the WFP provides school meals to up to 25 million children in 63 countries, while working with communities to improve nutrition. Where possible, it buys supplies from developing countries to cut down transport cost and boost local economies.
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Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
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Cutting red tape on import and export of food
