Covid Home Tests Arrive Without Return Labels - Official Response? "Throw Them Away"

Despite having spent the last week running out of Covid19 home testing kits to fulfil demand, a government-sanctioned helpline is apparently telling people who have managed to receive them to... throw them away.

Teacher Tom Howell, from Leeds, contacted the official helpline after his test kit arrived without a return label, but instead of emailing him one, or even just telling him the address to return his samples to, the adviser, who said that 'a lot' had been sent out without the necessary labels, told him to 'just put it in the bin'.

The government's self-referral portal for people applying for testing has been widely criticised after running out of the home testing kits numerous times since its launch last week, and it would be reasonable to assume that any avoidable wastage of stocks should be a priority.

While it isn't possible to put an exact figure on what constitutes 'a lot' of unlabelled tests, the fact is that these kits, which people are being advised to throw away unused, have already been counted into the government's increasingly suspect 'official figures' on tests carried out...