The meeting involving the top “blue chip” providers was primarily to discuss ways to tackle “cowboy” test firms ripping off holidaymakers with misleading prices, inflated costs and delayed or lost results. On Sunday, Mr Javid removed 57 firms from the list and put 82 on notice.
Ministers have previously maintained that the tests are needed to identify and protect against Covid variants because they allow for the virus to be genome sequenced – something that is not possible with the cheaper and less accurate lateral flow tests, which cost as little as £10.
“From what I have heard, PCR tests are here to stay because they are pretty valuable for mapping the genome,” said a government source. Even industry insiders fear PCR tests will remain in place until at least the New Year.
It comes as new NHS data show that just 0.7 per cent of the 93,228 people tested after arrival from green list countries in the three weeks up to Aug 11 were positive. It was just 1.3 per cent for arrivals from the amber list, and 2.5 per cent from red countries.
There were zero variants found in sequenced tests of red or green list arrivals, while 0.1 per cent of the 442,927 people from amber countries tested positive for known “standard” variants.
The disclosure prompted a demand by Julia Simpson, the new head of the World Travel and Tourism Council, a former IAG director, for the “widely discredited” traffic light system to be scrapped and PCR tests replaced by lateral flow tests for double jabbed travellers.
