A LEADING public health expert has called for the government to urgently start testing health workers for Covid-19, saying the number of cases we know about are ‘only the tip of the iceberg’.
Devi Sridhar, professor of Global Public health at the University of Edinburgh has also called on Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon to “be honest” about the reasons behind the lack of testing for both front line medical staff and those who show mild symptoms of the virus.
She said unless testing is dramatically increased, the true extent of the pandemic in the UK will not be clear and planning for the future would become more difficult and potentially less effective.
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Speaking to the Herald, Professor Sridhar said: “We must be testing, and if capacity is the issue they must say that. Other countries have done this. If they cannot do 10,000 tests per day, they need to say that. They have to be straight forward with the public, and say our capacity is ‘X’ amount per day, we are testing these individuals for this reason, and we are working to ramp up capacity and this is when we anticipate we can do ‘Y’ amount of tests per day. I still have not heard that yet, they must be clear and tell us.
“In South Korea, they are doing 10,000 tests a day. Healthy 20-year-olds and the elderly alike, all age groups.
“They are finding that only 4-5% of people who have the virus end up in hospital. If we are relying on our data from hospital admissions, and some GP surgeries, we will not know how many people are actually infected.
The university professor said that along with mass testing, public health workers should be made a priority for testing for Covid-19, and expressed concern that they are not.
There is growing pressure on the Government to introduce testing for healthcare workers, with petitions being started online and some professional bodies questioning why the measures have not been introduced.
Professor Sridhar said: “Health workers must be tested. A lot of lot GPs are demanding this because they are seeing patients and they want to know if they have had it, if they are infectious and if they are passing it on.
“On specific Covid wards, I have four medical students who are on Covid wards and they are saying they don’t know if they have been exposed, some are saying they have had mild symptoms and they need to know if they are able to do their job. There needs to be prioritised testing of health workers, I don’t understand the logic behind the decision not to do this.
“Other countries have done it, the US announced they will be doing it, and it is what you would classically do in an outbreak. They are the people who are most exposed.”
According to the most recent Scottish Government update, NHS workers who show symptoms of the virus will be tested.
Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood said on Sunday: “This new approach to testing will enable us to understand the pattern and spread of coronavirus in the community, to develop a clear assessment of the situation and to predict the peak number of cases, without having to test everyone with possible symptoms.
“Those with mild symptoms do not need to be tested. They should continue to stay at home for seven days and only contact their GP or 111 if their condition worsens.
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“Everybody has a role to play in helping contain this outbreak by following the latest health advice and basic hygiene precautions such as washing hands frequently, not touching their face and covering their nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.”
Jeane Freeman said yesterday afternoon during a briefing that there was a "strong" regime in place for testing and it would make sure workers were not isolating when they did not need to.
She said “As we work to suppress this infection, we will continue a strong testing regime that will ensure key workers, such as frontline NHS staff, will be tested so that they do not self-isolate unnecessarily.”
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