Mass testing for COVID brought down the infection rate in Slovakia by about 60% in one week, say U.K. researchers – but in combination with tough quarantine rules and other measures that are not being implemented in Liverpool or elsewhere in the U.K., the Guardian reports.
Slovakia guaranteed high utilization of the rapid tests by requiring employers not to allow people to work without a certificate to prove they had tested negative. Anybody who got a positive result had to go into quarantine with their family, but their full salary was paid for the 10 days of isolation.
A negative test result allowed people to work, but was not a criterion for visiting an elderly relative in a care home, or for a student coming home for the holidays. The exercise in Slovakia was not carried out to lift restrictions directly, but to find COVID cases and isolate them, enabling a more targeted approach.
