Sheffield Council 'warns care homes not to use Government's new rapid Covid tests'

The council has emailed care home providers saying the Covid-19 lateral flow tests (LFT), which give a result in as little as 15 minutes, appear to show an ‘unacceptably high risk’ of failing to detect the virus, according to Sky News.

The technology is being trialled around the country, with hopes it could enable people to safely visit their loved ones in care homes.

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Sky News says it understands that Sheffield Council asked the Government for technical data about the accuracy of the tests, which it is yet to receive.

The email, sent by Sara Storey, the council’s head of access and prevention, reportedly states: “Sheffield City Council cannot be assured of the accuracy of the LFT kits in high risk sensitive settings such as care homes.

"When used in practice the performance of the LFT kits appears to show an unacceptable high risk of not correctly detecting infected individuals.”

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Lateral flow tests do not require a laboratory to get the results, with swabbing and processing able to be done on-site by trained staff, and they have been used to test more people who are not showing any coronavirus symptoms.

The Department of Health and Social Care told Sky News: “We are trialling testing of visitors to people in care homes to give families more opportunities to reunite and evaluations from Public Health England and the University of Oxford show these tests are accurate and sensitive enough to be used in the community, including for asymptomatic people."