Professor Mark Ferguson:

That is a good question. It would be for the ten days that are currently done in quarantine. It would be the same length of time but instead of being in quarantine there would just be a test every day. Clearly, if people tested positive, they would isolate. If they tested negative, they could continue around their business.

If there is a positive or a negative test and a need to be sure, just immediately do another test. The first thing is, if a test is positive and someone thinks, "I am not really positive", do another test and if that is positive, one can be pretty sure the person is positive. He or she can go for a confirmatory PCR. These are very straightforward matters.

The cost of tests varies. The UK procurement document, which is a public document, states that each individual barcoded test must cost less than £5. The UK is paying less than £5 but how much less I do not know. It may be £3; I do not know. In normal pricing, the tests cost somewhere between €5 to €9. It would depend on how many are bought and how they are bought and so on, but the cost is of that order. The cost is very low by comparison with PCR, mandatory quarantining or anything like that. They are relatively cheap.