Confirmed cases by test types

What proportion of cases in England fall into each test category?

Counts of confirmed cases depend on the viral testing regime, capacity, and willingness. In England, there are three main ways to get a positive test:

• PCR only: A person, often with symptoms or regular testing, takes a polymerase chain reaction test.
• LFD (positive PCR): After taking a rapid test, it shows a positive result. That person then undertakes a confirmatory PCR test, which is also positive. The swab for the latter test is within 72 hours. If all such tests are negative, then analysts remove that case.
• LFD only: The person gets a positive result on a rapid test. In some circumstances, there is no PCR test within the three-day window. As such, the reported positive result remains.

There are also loop-mediated isothermal amplication (LAMP) tests. This kind of test does not have its own category.

For each person in England, only their first confirmed positive result counts as a new case. At present, reinfections do not add to reported case counts.

In November 2021, there were around 798,000 new cases with only PCR tests. About 177,000 positive rapid devices were later confirmed by PCR tests. Also, around 30,000 cases came through a rapid test without a lab test.

One in five (21%) new cases in England involved a rapid test.