Negative
You are safe to continue with whatever plans you made that depended on the outcome of the test.
Positive
You may test positive even if you are not symptomatic. If you test positive for COVID-19, this means that you have the virus. You should leave the test centre straight away and return to the place you are staying, without delay. You may wish to self-isolate from the date of your positive test to protect those around you.
You can find help on all the UK government’s websites about getting a positive test result, self-isolation and find out which other tests you may need to have (particularly if you want to update your personal medical records). It is up to you to inform your GP/healthcare provider after a positive test, especially if you will need a certificate of recovery from the NHS later - we do not do certificates of recovery.
Indeterminate
Due to the high degree of sensitivity of some our tests, in very few cases (less than 0.5%), a result of indeterminate may be given (sometimes this might be called unclear or invalid). This means that we have detected a very faint signal that the technology is unable to either call positive or call negative. If you receive an indeterminate result from a test conducted in person at one of our test centres, we will contact you to invite you back to an ExpressTest test centre to get re-tested (at no additional cost), to try to provide a definitive result for you.
NOTE: if you receive an invalid test result from an ExpressTest home test, it is your responsibility to arrange for another test.
Who will you notify for a positive test result?
We notify the UK Public Health Authorities as follows:
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
In England, we are obliged by law to notify your positive test result and personal details to the relevant health authority. They may contact you via their Track & Trace contact tracing programme.
Public Health Scotland (PHS)
In Scotland, you should take an NHS PCR test to confirm the positive lateral flow result. The NHS PCR result will be reported into PHS, and they may contact you via their Test and Protect contact tracing programme.