Construction industry gains access to free at-home Covid-19 tests

Companies working in the construction industry can now order at-home Covid-19 tests for their employees completely free of charge. 

The UK Government is hoping that rapid at-home testing can help keep the economy moving during this stage of the Covid-19 pandemic, with it making enough tests available to cover almost all construction companies. 

There are some requirements to be eligible for the at-home rapid tests, however. The first condition is that any company requesting the tests must have more than 10 employees, while they must also not have the capacity to do on-site Covid testing. 

Once those conditions are met, companies can register online to sign up for free tests until the end of June. The Government has noted a deadline of April 12 for registrations, although it does note that your business does not need to be open yet, nor does it need to use the tests straight away if you register. 

Those choosing to register will receive a lateral flow test which they can use at home. These tests will be able to tell the employee if they have the virus, although they are not completely accurate. That’s why, if an employee does come back positive, they will be encouraged to take a PCR test, which takes more than 24 hours to get a test result, to ascertain whether or not the test was accurate.

Matthew Fell, CBI Chief UK Policy Director, commented. “Mass, rapid workplace testing is an essential pillar of the roadmap for reopening, alongside the vaccine rollout.

“Having the option for staff to test at home will enable more firms to embrace workplace testing, as not all employers will have the space or facilities to run testing programmes on their premises.”