COVID-19 home testing booklet

12-page booklet for Coronavirus (COVID-19) Home Test with courier collection, TC1291, used during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020

Between May 2020 and April 2022, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were available free of charge to anyone in the United Kingdom with symptoms of COVID-19. Tests could be taken in person at drive-through testing centres, local walk-in test sites or at mobile testing units, which travelled around the country responding to need.

People could also request a home test kit to be delivered to their door. Initially these home kits needed to be returned using a courier service. This instruction booklet dating from around June 2020 asks users to ‘book the collection of your home test sample’ as soon as they receive the kit, which it estimates should take 5-10 minutes. The test itself, the booklet goes on to advise, should completed ‘between 9pm (the night before) and 7am (the day of)’ collection. From 28 June 2020 onwards, people had the option of returning their samples by post in one of over 30,000 Royal Mail priority postboxes across the UK.