Professor Patricia Kearney:

Testing is certainly part of the response but, and my colleague, Professor Staines alluded to this earlier, none of these measures, in and of itself, is perfect. There are problems with testing with potential false negatives, for example, and around timing whereby testing gives a result at a point in time. It is, however, part of the response. Around the world, we see the different measures and approaches being developed with regard to whether people have to test before they travel and whether they are tested again on arrival and during their isolation period. We put forward, and we agree, that in the first instance we take the elimination strategy and then work to figure out what is the best way to incorporate testing in the overall approach.