Leicestershire Added To Mass-Testing Programme

Up to 80,000 Covid-19 test kits a week are to be sent to Leicestershire, after it was added to a list of trial areas.

It follows discussions between the county council and Department of Health & Social Care this afternoon, after the county was not initially included in a list of over 60 parts of the country to be part of the scheme.

The rapid tests will provide results in as little as an hour and Mike Sandys, director of public health for Leicestershire, told Hfm they can deployed in a number of settings, including hotspot areas for Covid-19:

Leicestershire County Council had been left disappointed and surprised it was initially not chosen to be part of the trial, as areas with lower Covid-19 rates, were.included in the scheme.

Council leader, Nick Rushton, said: “This is good news. We’ve had a productive conversation with Government leads and are pleased to be included on the list. I’m grateful to those MPs who supported our case.

“Like other areas, we want to try every means possible to defeat the virus and enable life to become more normal.

“Given our early application and rates, it was surprising we weren’t named initially but this is a helpful outcome and means we can roll out the tests in hot spot areas.”

The council 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.