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COVID-19 Testing Guidance from Friday 1st April 2022 

11 May 2022
A stack of COVID-19 rapid testing kits

Although most people will have to pay for a COVID-19 test from that date, free tests will continue to be available to help protect specific groups who are at risk of serious illness from COVID-19, or live or work in places where infection can spread very rapidly.   

Full details, setting out how the current testing regimes will change can be found in the Government’s Living With Covid Strategy, updated 30th March 2022 

  Free testing will continue for people with symptoms (symptomatic) in the following groups:

  • Care home and supported living residents and staff  
  • Day care centre staff  
  • Hospice staff and patients  
  • NHS patients in hospital  
  • NHS staff and staff working in NHS-funded independent healthcare settings   
  • Adult social care social workers, personal assistants, Shared Lives carers   
  • People who are eligible for COVID-19 antiviral and other treatments  
  • Staff and users/residents of refuges, homeless settings, and places of detention, including prisons  

Free testing will continue for people without COVID-19 symptoms (asymptomatic) in the following groups;

  • Adult social care staff and a small number of care home visitors providing personal care  
  • Hospice staff  
  • Patient-facing staff in the NHS and NHS-funded independent healthcare provision  
  •  Some staff in prisons and other places of detention 
  • Some staff in refuges and shelters  

Visiting High-Risk Settings 

Most visitors to adult social care settings, the NHS, hospices, and prisons will no longer require a test.  

Tests will continue to be provided to a small number of visitors to care homes and hospices who will be providing personal care.  

Visits by people with symptoms may still be allowed in exceptional circumstances, such as end of life visits, but please contact someone responsible at the setting prior to visiting in these circumstances.  

Lateral flow tests will continue to be available to buy from pharmacies, supermarkets and online for anyone wishing to test themselves.  

Should a new COVID-19 variant of concern emerge, the government has plans in place to enable a rapid testing response.  

Residents can continue to follow  simple steps to keep themselves and others safe and help Keep Wirral Well.  

Testing Centre Closures 

All community testing will end in Wirral by 5pm on Thursday 31 March. 

The symptom-free (LFD) testing centres that will close are:

  • The Old House of Fraser Store, Birkenhead
  • The Cherry Tree Shopping Centre, Liscard (this unit will now be used as a pop-up vaccination facility) 

The following symptom-only (PCR) testing centres are also now closed:

  • Bebington (Civic Centre)
  • Europa Pools, Birkenhead
  • Hamilton Building, Birkenhead
  • Heswall Library 
  • The Oval, Bebington 

Mobile testing units are also no longer running.  

Full details, setting out how the current testing regimes will change can be found in the Government’s Living With Covid Strategy, updated 30th March 2022 

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