Healthcare company Salutaris People, which provides PCR testing at Liverpool John Lennon airport, reported a “10-fold” increase in bookings for its rapid tests in the past two weeks.

Salutaris attributed this rise in demand to problems with subsidised self-administered tests provided by tour operators and airlines, which have been returned as “unclear” and necessitated a second rapid test to avoid passengers missing flights and holidays.

Ben Paglia managing director of AKEA Life, which is the clinical testing partners to Salutaris People, said: “We have experienced a surge in the last two weeks, which has been due to a number of airline passengers booking secondary PCR tests with us.

“Many of those have come from passengers who have booked flights with airlines and package holiday operators.

“They have been sent PCR postal kits, which are self-administered. These test results have come back as unclear from the laboratories.  This means they were not clear to fly and needed to take a second PCR test.”