Rapid Covid testing coming to Burnley and Pendle

The Prime Minister has announced that 600,000 rapid-turnaround lateral flow tests will be sent out by NHS Test and Trace to local public health leaders this week.

In total, tests will be issued to over 50 local health directors across England, as part of the next phase of the government’s plan to expand asymptomatic testing for Covid-19. Each area will receive an initial batch of 10,000 rapid tests as part of a new pilot to enable them to start testing priority groups.

As part of this offer, the Health Secretary has written to all upper tier local authority leaders, confirming that all local health directors will be offered a weekly allocation of rapid-turnaround tests, equivalent to 10% of their population, building on existing partnerships between NHS Test and Trace and local leaders.

The new testing technology – which is already being rolled out in Liverpool – can provide results within an hour without needing to be processed in a lab.

Burnley MP Antony Higginbotham said: "The only way we can beat this virus is through scientific advances not just with a vaccine, which we hope will come very soon from recent news, but through much quicker and mass testing.

"On Monday night I spoke to the Health Secretary who confirmed that Lancashire is one of the areas that will benefit from these new rapid tests, with weekly deliveries of them, ensuring we can focus on areas where outbreaks are happening. And they are not only for those with symptoms, as the main testing sites are, but for asymptomatic people too."

Proactively testing asymptomatic individuals will help identify those who unknowingly have the virus and enable those who test positive and their contacts to self-isolate, which can help drive down the R rate locally and save lives.

Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson said: “We have already reached a major milestone for testing – delivering on our target capacity of 500,000 a day.

“Mass testing will play a crucial role in tackling coronavirus, and it is excellent to see the Government deploying these new rapid-turnaround tests which can help identify thousands of people who don’t have symptoms but can still infect others without knowing.”