New Covid-19 testing scheme to be rolled out across areas of Black Country and Staffordshire
New, fast coronavirus testing is set to be rolled out across the Black Country and Staffordshire – with new kits that can deliver results in less than an hour.
Wolverhampton, Dudley, Staffordshire and Birmingham are among 67 areas across the country that will each receive 10,000 lateral flow tests later this week.
It follows a mass testing programme in Liverpool that has seen more than 23,000 people tested since Friday.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said the new tests would help detect asymptomatic cases.
After the initial 10,000 tests have been sent out, each area will offered a weekly allocation equivalent of 10 per cent of its population. Local authorities will run their own individual schemes, with directors of public health to decide how and from where tests are administered.
The news was announced this morning.
Mr Hancock said: "Last week we rolled out mass testing in Liverpool using new, rapid technology so we can detect this virus quicker than ever before, even in people who don’t have symptoms.
"Mass testing is a vital tool to help us control this virus and get life more normal.
"I am delighted to say 10,000 of these tests will now be sent out by NHS Test and Trace to over 50 directors of public health as part of our asymptomatic testing strategy.
"I want to thank all directors of public health for their support and efforts over the past months to help us tackle this virus, bring it under control and get the country back to what we love doing."
The kits can provide results within an hour without needing to be processed in a lab.
Important
It is understood in Wolverhampton that testing will take place at places of worship.
Councillor Ian Brookfield, the leader of Wolverhampton Council, said: "This is an important step, but it is not really mass testing.
"We are getting 10,000 kits to test people around a faith-based setting, so it is not city wide. At the moment we are looking to find appropriate settings.
"The idea is to find out whether take up increases depending on the setting. We are happy to participate, but people should not confuse this with the mass testing that Liverpool has had."
Wolverhampton North East MP Jane Stevenson said: “It is great news that Wolverhampton will be one of the first places to roll out rapid Covid-19 tests from this this week.
"Along with yesterday’s promising news of a potential coronavirus vaccine, this announcement is a significant milestone for our city and will enable us to get on top of the virus.
“I know that the pandemic has caused a lot of hardship for people’s jobs and businesses, and that is why I have repeatedly called for widespread mass testing as one of the ways we can return to some normality. In the meantime, we must all continue to follow the guidance and work together to defeat this awful virus."
Mr Hancock attempted to clarify how the scheme would work in the Commons.
Responding to a question from Dudley South MP Mike Wood, the Health Secretary said: "We're not putting stringent rules around the use of these tests, because we want directors of public health to use them in ways they think will work and are important locally, and then to feedback on the effectiveness of their use so we can learn, and keeping learning about this roll out."
Mr Wood said: “This is a fantastic development that we have managed to secure so many of the first batch of tests in this new effective, rapid testing system.
“It will help us to identify the asymptomatic cases which could otherwise be passing on the virus to other people.
“This means we can keep everyone safer, particularly those key workers who have worked throughout this pandemic to keep the country going.”
Dudley Council said it is in the process of planning how to administer the tests.
Bal Kaur, the authority's director of public health, said: “These tests can return much quicker results, giving a positive or negative outcome in approximately 30 minutes.
“Testing is a critical part of helping to control the virus.
“So being able to test more people, and get results back more quickly, will be critical in the ongoing battle against the coronavirus pandemic in the borough.”
Staffordshire County Council said plans for testing are still to be finalised.
Dr Johnny McMahon, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Health, Care and Wellbeing, said: “The Government is looking to expanding testing and in Staffordshire we are committed to taking every opportunity to stop the spread of infection.
“By widening our offer of testing, we can identify more people who have the virus and need to self-isolate, which in turn stops the spread of infection and reduces the number of cases.”
The authority said current testing sites around the county were showing “good availability”.
