TESTING for Covid-19 at hospitals is being reduced and changes made to checks before patients are transferred to care homes. 

Health minister Eluned Morgan said the decision, which has been taken in line with advice issued to all four UK nations, is possible due to the “current public health situation”. 

It means more relaxed rules around testing for people attending hospitals will be in place which Morgan said could have a “positive impact” on the health and care sector that she acknowledged has been under “extraordinary pressure” in recent weeks. 

She said: “The pandemic has not gone away and we are still learning to live with Covid-19, but the current public health situation allows us to make appropriate changes to the testing regime that supports health boards to implement the necessary infection prevention and control (IPC) strategies that will have a positive impact on routine and emergency care. 

“We are making these changes based on the best scientific, public health and expert evidence available at this time, changes that enable local decisions to support the best possible patient care. 

“Thanks to our incredible vaccination programme the risk to the NHS of being overwhelmed is now greatly reduced and we can make changes to the testing regime within the context of other infection prevention and control measures.” 

The changes will mean asymptomatic patients who have not previously tested positive for Covid will be tested within 24 hours of their planned discharge to a care home or facility. 

Deadly outbreaks in care homes during the first wave of the pandemic were blamed on hospitals discharging patients without testing. 

Health boards are being encouraged to work with care home providers on discharge testing arrangements. 

It will be assumed patients who have tested positive on or since admission are no longer infectious when their symptoms are resoved, they have no fever and ten days have passed since their positive test. 

Local testing protocols can reduce the 10 day isolation period for patients meeting the above clinical criteria. Tests can be Lateral Flow Device (LFD) or other rapid antigen detection tests. Patients should have two negative tests taken 24 hours apart as well as showing clinical improvement, before being moved out of isolation and discharged. 

For those arriving at hospitals there will be different testing requirements based on the patient’s individual risk from infection. 

Asymptomatic patients who are having a surgical procedure or chemotherapy will be tested using a PCR or Point of Care Test (POCT) 72 hours before admission and asked to self-isolate until their procedure. 

For some asymptomatic low risk patients being admitted for low-risk procedures, health boards may decide a negative LFD on or just before admission may be sufficient. 

Testing on unscheduled admission will also see changes, with patients with respiratory symptoms being tested for a range of illnesses (COVID-19, Influenza, RSV as a minimum) on one PCR or POCT swab.  

Patients without respiratory symptoms should be tested for COVID-19 only, using a LFD on admission. 

Symptomatic testing will continue, with patients who develop symptoms being tested with a PCR or POCT for COVOD-19, Influenza, RSV or a full multiplex as clinically directed however there will no longer be asymptomatic testing of patients unless a local decision decides it is necessary. 

All patient facing health care staff are still advised to use LFD testing twice weekly. The Welsh Government said that advice is regularly reviewed.

Since the start of April community testing has changed with laboratory confirmed PCR testing for the general public withdrawn and replaced with home-testing LFT kits. 

That has meant figures the number of new cases reported via testing is lower than previously during the pandemic. 

The latest figures released by Public Health Wales show that 343 new cases were confirmed across Wales in the 72-hour period between 9am on Friday and 9am on Monday. 

Those figures also reported 10 new deaths across Wales, taking the total since the start of the pandemic to 7,334. 

Meanwhile the number of deaths involving coronavirus registered each week in England and Wales has risen above 1,000 for the first time since early February. 

This is despite the figures covering a period that includes the Good Friday bank holiday, when most register offices were closed. 

A total of 1,003 deaths registered in the seven days to April 15 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). 

This is up 4 per cent on the previous week and is the highest number since the seven days to February 11. 

The increase is smaller than in previous weeks, but this is likely to reflect the impact of the bank holiday on April 15 when very few deaths will have been registered. 

The figures show deaths involving coronavirus are continuing on an upwards trend, though they remain well below levels seen in previous waves of the virus. 

The rise follows the recent surge in infections driven by the Omicron BA.2 variant. 

Infections are now estimated to be falling across the country after hitting record levels in March, but prevalence of Covid-19 remains high, the ONS said. 

The 1,003 deaths registered in the week to April 15 is below the 1,484 deaths registered at the peak of the initial Omicron wave in January this year. 

It is also some way below the 8,433 deaths registered at the peak of the second wave of the virus, in the week to January 29 2021. 

The relatively low number of deaths during recent months reflects the success of the vaccination programme, in particular the rollout of booster doses at the end of last year. 

A campaign is now under way to give a “spring booster” – a fourth jab of vaccine – to people aged 75 and over, residents of older adult care homes and those aged 12 and over who are immunosuppressed. 

Overall, 193,528 deaths have now occurred in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, the ONS said. 

The highest number on a single day was 1,487, on January 19 2021. 

During the first wave of the virus, the daily toll peaked at 1,461 on April 8 2020. 

Around nine in 10 deaths with Covid-19 on the death certificate since the start of the pandemic have coronavirus as the primary cause of death, with a minority listing the virus as a contributory factor.