This was on the Medscape site earlier today. (I've not copied the whole article).
The Government is likely to follow recommendations from the new UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) for more Covid protocol relaxation in hospitals which won't make any of us who attend hospital frequently feel any safer, But as the NHS is under such pressure, (staff numbers and money) which is bound to worsen during the next few months, maybe this was inevitable.
Roger
"An expert in microbiology has expressed concern about the new UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) recommendations on COVID-19 infection prevention and control (IPC) around elective procedures.
The recommendations include three interventions which relate to social distancing and testing in NHS and Social Care elective care services, and a removal of enhanced cleaning practices.
The new recommendations advise that enhanced cleaning can be discontinued in low-risk areas. Providers have been told that they can now revert to standard cleaning procedures. The decision is based on advice by the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviour (SPI-B) that hand hygiene is likely to be more effective than enhanced cleaning of surfaces.
But Dr Simon Clarke, Associate Professor in Cellular Microbiology, University of Reading, says the removal of enhanced cleaning “smacks of corner cutting.”
The SPI-B advice is based on “observations” that hand hygiene is likely to be more effective than surface cleaning in controlling the coronavirus, but that does not mean it is unimportant and can safely be cut, Dr Clarke has cautioned.
“Moreover,” he said, “SPI-B are a committee of behavioural scientists, not virologists or microbiologists and they are unlikely to be qualified to make such judgements. Indeed, SPI-B cite a NERVTAG paper which also called for further studies in this area, rather than leaning on any hard data.
He also warned that the elimination of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing before procedures will leave vulnerable patients at risk of infection.
UKHSA has recommended that selected patients in low-risk groups who are fully vaccinated and asymptomatic will now only require a negative lateral flow test on the day of their procedure and will no longer need to have a negative PCR and isolate for three days.
Commenting on the new guidance, Dr Jenny Harries, UKHSA Chief Executive said: "We have reviewed the existing COVID-19 IPC evidence based guidance and made a series of initial pragmatic recommendations on how local providers can start to safely remove some of the interventions that have been in place in elective care specifically for COVID-19."
"This is a first step to help the NHS treat more patients more quickly, while ensuring their safety and balancing their different needs for care."
Ibrutinib and Covid 19
Covid-19 2nd Positive 
