The Government of the United Kingdom has announced that starting this Friday it will offer everyone over 18 years of age in the country the possibility of undergoing two free and rapid tests for COVID-19.

In a statement, the authorities have specified that the tests may also be carried out by people who do not present symptoms, as a further step in the strategy to face the pandemic.

“Regular testing is at the center of plans to reopen society and the economy, helping to suppress and control the spread of variants of the coronavirus,” making it “an important step” that “paves the way” for the reopening of the country, highlights the Boris Johnson Administration in the letter.

Until now, rapid tests were available to people at highest risk and people leaving home for work, including front-line healthcare workers, nursing home staff and residents, school children and their families.

However, starting April 9, rapid tests will be offered to everyone, along with the premise of encouraging people to have regular tests to help prevent outbreaks and “regain a more normal way of life.”

According to the British authorities, one in three people with coronavirus does not experience any symptoms and “may be spreading the virus without knowing it”, so with the tests, if they are positive, the infected person can be quickly isolated.

Since rapid tests were introduced in the country, more than 120,000 positives have been identified “that would not have been identified otherwise”, thus making more diagnostic tests of this type available “the chains of transmission will be broken and they will save lives. “

“As we continue to make good progress on our vaccine program and with our roadmap to cautiously ease restrictions in place, regular rapid testing is even more important to ensure those efforts are not wasted.” Johnson.

Testing will be delivered through a home order service, workplace testing programs, community testing, and school and university testing.

At the moment, this measure only affects England, as the authorities of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will make their own decisions, reports Sky News.

The United Kingdom has registered about 2,200 new coronavirus infections this Sunday and a dozen deaths during the last 24 hours at a time when more than 31.5 million people have already received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine

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