Superdrug and Boots to sell lateral flows as free Covid tests set to be scrapped
HIGH-STREET pharmacies have revealed how much lateral flow tests will cost as free kits are scrapped.
Superdrug and Boots have started selling the at-home swabs as of today.
Boots said a single lateral flow test will cost £5.99, while a pack of four will be priced at £17.
Both include the cost of delivery via Royal Mail and customers will be able to purchase them on the .
From early March, Boots will also offer Covid lateral flow tests at 400 stores for a lower cost.
A single test will be priced at just £2.50 while a pack of five will be £12.
Superdrug will offer a single lateral flow test for £1,99, while a pack of five will be £9.79. It is not clear when they will be on sale.
The retailers are the first to set a price for the tests, which give results in around 30 minutes.
It comes after the Government announced that free widespread testing will be scrapped from April 1 - including at-home lateral flow kits.
Most read in Health
Tests will still be available to symptomatic elderly and vulnerable people.
Unveiling his "living with Covid" plan, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “We’re working with retailers to ensure that everyone who wants to can buy a test.”
The tests may vary considerably between shops, with previous reports of £30 per box of seven.
Mr Johnson - who said that the testing system had cost more than £2 billion in January alone - has faced backlash over the plans.
Tens of thousands of people behind a petition on Change.Org calling for tests to remain free, and self-isolation, due to end on Thursday, to remain.
There are concerns that charging for tests will hit poorer families.
Prof Christina Pagel, Professor of Operational Research, UCL, said: “Removing self isolation requirements, financial support for self-isolation and free testing will disproportionately affect more deprived communities.
“People within those communities will be less able to afford testing, less able to afford to isolate and more likely to work outside the home and so potentially infect others.
“Combined with higher rates of existing health conditions and lower rates of vaccination, this is likely to lead to significantly higher burden of Covid and its consequences in these communities compared to the least deprived.”
Before April 1, the number of free tests available each day will be capped to “manage demand”.
It means that people are no longer able to order a box of seven tests every 24 hours, and instead have to wait 72 hours.
A scramble for the last of free test boxes has left people struggling to order lateral flow kits at all.
The Government has “urged people only to order what they need” after shameless hoarders have taken to social media to show off their stockpiled kits.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
A debate in the Lords today saw Labour front bench peer Baroness Smith of Basildon asking whether the cost of a lateral flow test will be fixed.
For the Government, Lords Leader Baroness Evans of Bowes Park said: “Retailers will be setting the price but we will be ensuring that the private testing market is properly regulated, including monitoring prices charged, and we will of course continue to work with UK companies in developing lateral flow tests.”