Immediately implement community COVID-19 testing. · petition

What the petition asks

Immediately implement testing in the community for COVID-19, employing intensive efforts to quarantine positive cases, trace their contacts and quarantine them as well.

Follow the evidence from the experience in countries such as South Korea and China who have been successful in slowing the rate of viral transmission by finding and isolating every positive case of the virus and quarantining them. It is essential to implement this immediately in order to get a true assessment of the number of positive cases and begin to slow down the rate of transmission, taking pressure off the health services, giving vulnerable patients a better chance of survival.

Why it was rejected

It asked for something that is not the responsibility of the UK Government or Parliament.

We can't accept your petition because the UK Government and Parliament aren't responsible for the issue you raise. The conduct of tests is a clinical decision for the NHS, not the UK Government or Parliament.

We have published a petition calling for the Government to provide publicly accessible testing for coronavirus around the UK, which you might want to sign: Provide publicly accessible testing for the covid-19 virus around the UK now.

Since you started your petition the Government has announced that testing for coronavirus (COVID-19) will increase to 25,000 a day: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/testing-for-coronavirus-covid-19-will-increase-to-25-000-a-day

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:

NHS website: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

UK Government website: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public

Timeline

15 Mar 2020	Petition opened for signatures
20 Mar 2020	Rejected by the Petitions Committee