Covid-19 Testing  QueuesCould Become The Norm For UK Party Goers

Covid-19 Testing QueuesCould Become The Norm For UK Party Goers

By Ben Kerrigan-

Covid testing queues could become the norm for party goers in the UK, after prime minister Boris Johnson  to enable the re-opening of nightclubs and theatres could be effective way forward.

Downing street confirmed  the avenue of testing as a potential means for successfully opening night clubs in the UK, a week ahead of the government’s plans to reveal its road map for easing the lockdown.

Night clubs have been shut since March 2020, hitting that industry hard, as the high congregation of people in night clubs is considered one of the most high risk scenarios to allow.

Prime Minister Johnson said “rapid” lateral flow tests could be used by “those parts of the economy we couldn’t get open last year”.

“That, in combination with vaccination, will probably be the route forward,” he told a Downing Street news conference.

However, he stressed it was “still early days”, with “lots of discussions still to be had”.

A government source said: “There is a long way to go before we can get people back at big events safely.”

Nightclubs have been unable to operate since the first Covid lockdown in March 2020, while many theatres have struggled to make social distancing work.

The news comes as Mr Johnson said people must be “optimistic but patient” about an end to coronavirus restrictions in England.

He said steps taken to ease lockdown should be “cautious but irreversible” ahead of next week’s release of a roadmap for lifting curbs.

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi confirmed that the government favoured testing over vaccine passports as a means to reopen the economy, since it is not yet clear whether a vaccinated individual can transmit the virus.

Mr Zahawi described preliminary evidence on the effect of vaccines on coronavirus transmission as “really encouraging”, but told the BBC the full data might not be available for weeks.

“We have a couple of very large-scale studies related to giving us better data on the vaccines,” Mr Zahawi told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“We should be able to see really good data in the next few weeks from those studies.”

Michael Kill, the boss of the Night Time Industries Association, said administering rapid tests would not be straightforward, even if it was the way venues such as nightclubs were allowed to reopen.

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