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Up to 100,000 key workers in England will be required to take daily Covid tests from 10 January in a bid to curb the spread of the virus, the prime minister announced last night (4 January).
The PM said the daily testing will target key industries, including food processing, transport and the border force, and tests must be taken on the days workers are set to attend work.
In order to help the process, the government will directly send lateral flow tests to the industries in question.
The new measure aims to catch infections before they are spread to other employees, amid widespread staff shortages across many key sectors.
It comes as cases hit around 218,000 yesterday amid the ongoing surge of the Omicron variant. While the PM warned this was a “moment for the utmost caution”, he noted that the UK can “ride out this Omicron wave without shutting down our country once again”.
He added that schools and businesses can be kept open and that the UK will “find a way to live with this virus”.
Speaking at Downing Street yesterday, the PM also said that Plan B restrictions were set to continue, with masks still required in public settings and working from home where possible.
