The number of companies in the UK government’s list of approved companies for providing Covid tests as part of the test to release scheme has grown to 61, up from just 11 when the scheme was first launched.
The scheme, which allows people arriving in England to shorten their quarantine from ten days to five on receipt of a negative test, had a rocky start with many of the providers on the list overwhelmed with requests.
Same Day Doctor withdrew from the scheme temporarily because of the demand but the company has now rejoined the list.
The company's CEO Dr Laurence Gerlis said, “A lot of people have been travelling over the holiday period and we are still getting significant demand for test to release.”
He added: “I expect this will decrease gradually but there seems to be a fair amount of business and emergency travel that is still going on even though holidays have been cancelled.”
The new national lockdown in England and bans on flights and arrivals from the UK will have dented demand.
The government is working on a new testing scheme which was trailed by cabinet office minister Michael Gove earlier this week, however no formal policy has yet been announced and details are still being finalised.
A Department for Transport spokesman told BTN Europe: "This country already has some of the strongest safeguards against importing Covid-19 in the shape of mandatory ten-day quarantine for the vast majority of arrivals, and Test to Release.”
"Additional measures, including testing before departure, will help keep the importation of new cases to an absolute minimum, while national lockdown and vaccination take effect."