Thousands Of Rapid Covid-19 Test Kits Arrive In Leicestershire

Thousands of rapid test kits are to be deployed to coronavirus hot spots across Leicestershire, in a bid to stop the spread of the virus by finding people who are infected, but not showing symptoms. 

Leicestershire County Council has received 16,000 lateral flow test kits, with the option to request more if needed.

It says it has all the equipment it needs to start using them, with the hope the tests will help drive down infection rates in areas with a high levels of Covid-19, by tracing asymptomatic sufferers.

Mike Sandys, Leicestershire’s director of public health, said: “The challenge has always been that some people who have Covid-19 don’t show any symptoms.

“Where the lateral flow tests differ from the usual swab kits is that there’ll be a test result within an hour, without the need for lab processing.

“It now means we can test high-risk groups, help identify cases and then get people to self-isolate quickly to break the chain of infection.”

Nick Rushton, Leader of Leicestershire County Council, with the test kits

The focus of our teams is to contact and offer support to vulnerable people. Regular testing will protect them. This can be through offering advice to people with symptoms, providing advice to those self-isolating, putting families in touch with community hubs, and tips such as getting priority on online food deliveries.”

The council is one of  60 local authority areas across the country to be part of the pilot government scheme and can draw down from the national supply as needed, but is looking to have a stock of 10,000 kits at any one time to deploy rapidly.

For the period 19^th to 25^th November, infection rates stood at 193.7 per 100,000 of the Leicestershire population compared to the national rate of 175.8 per 100,000, so the arrival of the test kits signals the latest measure to continue bringing down infection rates.