Covid: Isle of Man government spends £5.8m on lateral flow tests

Lateral flow testing kits are provided free to the public

More than £5.8m has been spent on Covid-19 lateral flow test kits by the Isle of Man government, the health minister has confirmed.

Lawrie Hooper said the majority of that spending had been since rules the island's testing rules were changed.

Since 22 December, people are no longer required to take a PCR test to confirm a positive home test.

A full procurement process for the future sourcing of the kits would now be carried out, Mr Hooper said.

Money spent on the tests was initially paid out by the Department of Health, before being claimed back from the Treasury's Covid contingency funding, he said.

The tests had cost about £2.35 per unit, he added.

'Secure supply'

Under the current Covid testing regime on the island, people are being encourage to test themselves regularly using the home tests, and start the 10-day isolation immediately on recording a positive result.

Isolation can be ended early if two negative tests are subsequently recorded at least 24 hours apart.

Jason Moorhouse MHK asked whether the government would consider using the NHS supply chain for future stocks of the tests, as Guernsey had been doing so at a "very low cost".

Mr Hooper said, although that would be included in the procurement process, the UK had "been reporting some significant issues in terms of accessing lateral flow devices through the NHS supply chain in recent months".

"That's not a situation we want to be in," he said.

"The key thing for us at the moment is to make sure we don't risk our stable and secure supply chain that we currently have," he added.