King’s College London will be providing free NHS Lateral Flow antigen tests to students and staff who do not have coronavirus symptoms, from Monday 30 November across three testing sites; the Courtyard at Bush House; the Quad at the Guy’s Campus and the WEC Gym at Denmark Hill.
Anyone can be a carrier of the COVID-19 virus without experiencing any symptoms and taking a Lateral Flow test is a quick and rapid way to detect the virus without the need for a laboratory equipment which will support the King’s community’s efforts to help fight COVID-19.
To plan for the movement of students across the UK and beyond for the end of term, the Government has announced a travel window between 3-9 December in which students should aim to travel home in. This is to allow sufficient time to self-isolate before the holidays in the event of a positive test or in being identified as a close contact of someone who has tested positive for the virus. The advice is for students, who do not have coronavirus symptoms, deemed ‘asymptomatic’, to ideally take two free tests, three days apart, before they travel home.
The tests involve a simple and painless swab of the throat and the nose which individuals take themselves. Taking two Lateral Flow tests increases the accuracy of the testing system and results are available within 24 hours. After receiving negative test results, students are advised to leave university for home and within 24 hours of the negative test.
Students who live abroad and need to fly home, will need to check with their airline what their requirements are. In some cases a ‘fit to fly’ certificate is required which is available through private coronavirus tests. The university is able to help students flying home with the cost of getting a COVID-19 ‘fit to fly’ test.
