20/09/2022

Northern Ireland Department of Health has confirmed that from today, Monday 22 August 2022, most people in the general population with symptoms of COVID-19 will no longer be advised to take a test.

Free lateral flow tests will no longer be available for this purpose.

Lateral flow tests remain available free of charge for those for whom testing is still advised, including people who may be eligible for new COVID-19 treatments and health and social care staff.

This follows the most recent data provided by the Office for National Statistic’s Covid Infection Survey (which tests a sample of people in Northern Ireland) that suggested that in the week up to 8 August 2022, 1 in 50 (2%) people in Northern Ireland had COVID-19.

Businesses may want to review their risk assessment in light of this change to testing.

This change comes ahead of the removal of the temporary change to the SSP regulations on 24 September 2022. From the end of 24 September 2022 employees who cannot work while self-isolating because of coronavirus will no longer be entitled to SSP for every day they are in isolation.