Government Response

The Government responded to this petition on Tuesday 26th May 2020

All symptomatic individuals over 5 across the UK can now receive access to a covid-19 test to confirm whether they currently have the virus.

Since the 23 April, all essential workers have been able to access a test if they or a member(s) of their household are symptomatic.

This includes:

those working in education and childcare;
specialist education professionals; and
frontline local authority staff and volunteers, including those working with vulnerable children

A full list of eligible essential workers is available on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-getting-tested)

Since the 18 May, all those over 5 across the UK have been able to access a test if they are symptomatic.

As essential workers, teaching staff caring for children of other essential workers, FSM or vulnerable families should head to the online portal on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/apply-coronavirus-test) where they can either book to receive a home test or to attend one of the regional drive-through testing sites or mobile testing units.

Further increasing testing capacity is a top priority for this government, and we are working around the clock and across the country to protect the vulnerable, support the NHS, and save lives.

The Government’s overall ambition is to ensure that everyone who needs a test can get one: that is what we are aiming to achieve, and that is where we are going to get to.

Reaching 100,000 tests on 30 April was an important milestone, but we will go further and the Prime Minister has outlined that we will aim to increase total capacity to 200,000 tests by the end of this month.

Department of Health and Social Care