Richard has welcomed government plans to expand the workplace rapid testing programme to businesses with more than 50 employees.
The government is working closely with organisations across different sectors that are vital to the running of our country and where employees cannot work from home during lockdown, from transport networks to food manufacturers, to sign up to rapid testing programmes that identify cases of coronavirus in employees who are not showing symptoms. This will help stop the spread of coronavirusand ensure vital public and economic services can continue.
Many employers have already taken up the offer of rapid, regular workforce testing, with 112 UK organisations across almost 500 sites joining government backed rapid testing. By widening the criteria for joining the workplace rapid testing programme from businesses with more than 250 employees to businesses with more than 50 employees, will hugely increase the number of different businesses that are able to sign up, so that small and medium size companies can benefit from rapid testing.
Commenting, Richard Fuller, Business Select Committee Member and MP for North East Beds said: "By expanding rapid testing to key workplaces with more than 50 employees to help identify asymptomatic cases, we can ensure more small and medium businesses can continue to operate safely. These businesses are vital to the running of our country.
"Testing is key to breaking the chains of transmission and by strengthening workplace testing, we can complement our work in getting the British people vaccinated. Together these measures will help our nation and our workplaces return to normality safely."
Testing is key to breaking the chains of transmission. More than 2.5 million tests have been distributed across the public and private sectors so far, and an online portal has been launched to make it even easier for business in the private sector to get involved and find out more about offering rapid testing in the workplace. All those who can work from home should continue to do so.
Around one in three people who have coronavirus (COVID-19) have no symptoms and may be unknowingly spreading the virus. This expansion of testing will find more positive cases, keeping workers who cannot work from home unknowingly passing on the virus and protecting vital public services. It’s essential we still continue to use tests to safeguard the population and prevent the spread of the virus.
