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Liverpool Residents To Be Regularly Tested For Coronavirus In First Whole City Testing

Liverpool Residents To Be Regularly Tested For Coronavirus In First Whole City Testing

From Friday you can get a test in Liverpool regardless of whether you have symptoms as hundreds of thousands of tests are deployed

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

Everyone living or working in Liverpool will now be offered Covid-19 testing, whether they have symptoms or not, in the first pilot of whole city testing in England.

The Prime Minister will be announcing the first deployment of whole city testing in order to help support the local area and find more positive cases in a bid to break chains of transmission.

PA

Residents and workers will be tested using a combination of existing swab tests, as well as new lateral flow tests, which can rapidly turn around results within an hour without the need to be processed in a lab.

The pilot will help determine the effectiveness of mass testing as well as how fast and reliable Covid-19 testing can be delivered at scale.

Testing will be carried out at sites across the city, including a large number of new sites determined by local leaders. There will be a variety of ways to book a test, including: online, walk-up or by invitation from the local authority.

PA

Testing will be carried out in new and existing test sites, using home kits, in hospitals and care home settings, and schools, universities and workplaces.

Positive results from tests will be collected by NHS Test and Trace and published as part of the daily case numbers, including how many positive cases are detected with this new method of testing.

Anyone who tests positive must self-isolate along with their household immediately and their contacts will be traced. Those who test negative will need to continue to follow all national guidance.

Boris Johnson.
PA

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "I want to thank the civic leaders of Liverpool for volunteering to join the UK's first city-wide population testing pilot and the people of Liverpool for taking part.

"These tests will help identify the many thousands of people in the city who don't have symptoms but can still infect others without knowing. Dependent on their success in Liverpool, we will aim to distribute millions of these new rapid tests between now and Christmas and empower local communities to use them to drive down transmission in their areas.

"It is early days, but this kind of mass testing has the potential to be a powerful new weapon in our fight against Covid-19."

Matt Hancock.
BBC

Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, added: "Last month we set out our ambition to use the latest mass testing technologies to bring this virus under control.

"Mass testing will help us to control this virus, by finding it even before people get symptoms. I'm delighted we can now roll out mass testing to whole cities - starting with the City of Liverpool.

"Using half a million of the very latest rapid tests, this rollout can help suppress the virus and give residents and workers some peace of mind.

"I want to thank local leaders, Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson and City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, and Liverpool's Director of Public Health Matt Ashton, who will continue to work hand in hand with our dedicated Armed Forces to provide tests to anyone who wants one, fully supported by NHS Test and Trace.

"Everyone in Liverpool can help play their part by getting a test and following the rules, including the critical basics of hands, space, face."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: UK News, News, UK