Major change to Covid testing in weeks that could hit Brits in pocket by charging £100 for PCRs

FREE PCR tests will be axed within weeks as part of Boris Johnson’s plan to live with Covid. The PM is drawing up proposals to charge people if they want PCRs. It is understood they will remain free for vulnerable people and within hospitals and high-risk settings. Brits are currently told to get a highly-accurate […]

FREE PCR tests will be axed within weeks as part of Boris Johnson’s plan to live with Covid.

The PM is drawing up proposals to charge people if they want PCRs.

It is understood they will remain free for vulnerable people and within hospitals and high-risk settings.

Brits are currently told to get a highly-accurate PCR test after coming into contact with someone with Covid, but this advice is also set for the chop as the nation gets back to normal.

PCR tests which were previously needed for travel could cost more than £100 privately.

Ministers are poring over a menu of Covid options this week before making final calls.

The PM is desperate to end all Covid rules — including the legal duty to self isolate — by the end of the month.

Government insiders said PCR tests were hugely expensive and were less needed now cheaper lateral flow tests are widely available.

Advice for workers to take lateral flow tests regularly will also be scrapped.

And ministers may also scale down the Office for National Statistics Covid monitoring programme, which tests a sample of the population every week to find out how widespread it is.

The PM will lay out his plan for living with Covid once MPs return to work next week.

But just last week top scientists on Sage warned against the move to ditch free testing — saying it would “increase anxiety” among the population — particularly the clinically vulnerable.

And it would make it harder for those seeking to avoid the virus to protect themselves.