Testing to help everyone

If you are attending the St George’s site regularly, we strongly encourage you to test twice weekly to identify asymptomatic infections. It is our responsibility to help break chains of transmission. 

By getting tested you will be helping to break the chain of transmission, protecting those you live with and other members of our community. 

We hope you will take seriously the responsibilities we all hold for preventing transmission of coronavirus, but participation in testing is entirely voluntary, on an “opt in” basis, and individuals may withdraw from the testing activity at any point. 

If you are attending the St George’s site regularly, we strongly encourage you to test twice weekly to identify asymptomatic infections irrespective of  whether you are living at  home or not. 

You should follow the advice on testing offered by your placement provider.

You will still be able to collect packs of Lateral Flow Device (LFD) Covid tests on the St George's site to use at home, but you may find other means to be tested via your placement provider.

You can also order tests online from the government website.

We encourage students and staff who are regularly on site to test twice weekly, even if you have been vaccinated.

You can collect packs of Lateral Flow Device (LFD) Covid tests on site, to use at home.

LFD tests are intended to detect the presence or absence of coronavirus by applying a sample to the device after following the test instructions for swabbing.

The sample runs along the device, showing at the end a visual positive or negative result dependent on the presence of the virus. Lateral flow devices do not require a labratory to process the test.

If you receive a home-testing kit, each kit contains 7 tests with instructions, which are easy to administer and provide results in about 30 minutes. Tests must be taken at home.

If you visit a separate test centre, the processing of results will be carried out by trained personnel or as a self-test with supervision.

Lateral flow tests are validated technology. They are safe, inexpensive and the results are trusted.

Lateral flow tests are highly specific, which means that only a small proportion of people who do not have coronavirus will receive a positive result (false positive).

Although they give a result much more quickly, lateral flow tests are not as sensitive as tests offered through other channels (e.g. PCR tests available in other channels like Local Testing Sites). Sensitivity measures how likely a test will return a positive result when that person is infected. This is mitigated by testing people regularly, because the more times someone with the disease is tested, the more likely they are to be picked up by the test. 

This also means that if you test positive on a lateral flow test, it is likely that you are infectious at that moment, whereas people testing positive on more sensitive tests could be in the less infectious early or late stages of disease.

Following a positive LFD test result, students should self-isolate immediately and take a follow-up polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test  (only if symptomatic) as soon as possible. 

If the PCR result comes back positive, contacts must self-isolate for 10 days from the day they took the positive rapid test or developed symptoms. You may be able to finish your period of self-isolation earlier that this if you test negative by LFD on days six and seven. If the PCR result comes back negative, contacts can leave self-isolation but should continue to take rapid tests for the remainder of the 7 days. 

Please contact coronavirusconcern@sgul.ac.uk for further advice and support from the university.  

See www.gov.uk/coronavirus for more advice. 

If you are ill, your well-being is the over-riding priority and you should not be concerned about the impact on any learning or assessments.

In that event, please email Student Services on coronavirusconcern@sgul.ac.uk. The Registry will contact your course team and you will be contacted regarding how you can best engage with your studies.