Anyone here can order the test kits online from the government department responsible. They come in boxes of seven tests, they mail you two boxes at a time and they are free. You can also pick them up without fuss from most pharmacies (if they have them), also free and in boxes of seven. I've picked up several boxes from a pop-up testing tent too. There's been little or no rationing that I'm aware of. There has been a rush on them, starting just before Christmas when the omicron surge was underway (in which, as I've explained, I didn't have to participate), resulting in temporary supply issues. As I'm not up for hoarding, I don't know what the present situation is. I live in a remote rural area with few pharmacies per town/village, so we do need to ensure we don't run out. This pandemic will be defeated by infected people staying home, which means unfettered access to the lateral flow test kits, and by getting everyone vaccinated. Everything else is marginal, relative to those two things.

If you feel slightly under the weather but don't have test kits, you'll go out and about just as you would with a cold, and you'll infect people. If you have test kits, you'll use them (which is why you got them in the first place), and a positive result will persuade you to stay home for the requisite number of days. Nothing's perfect, of course. That's the way forward. And getting jabbed. If that's the way we all work, we'll have a good summer this year and, with a bit of luck, a more normal winter next back end. No shit, Sherlock.