Rapid Covid-19 tests offered to West Berkshire key workers at Newbury site

Government-funded scheme aims to 'add a level of confidence'

KEY workers in West Berkshire will be offered rapid coronavirus tests twice a week, starting from Monday.

A special testing centre is being set up by West Berkshire Council in the yet-to-open Highwood Copse Primary School in Newbury, with up to three more centres in the east and west of the district to follow in the coming weeks.

The centres will be open before and after work hours and key workers will be offered lateral flow tests that provide results in around 30 minutes.

The scheme is government-funded and aims to prevent essential workers, such as supermarket employees, from transmitting the virus without realising.

The council says it will contact those who are eligible for a test and offer them an appointment.

People will not be allowed to turn up for a test without an appointment.

Council leader Lynne Doherty said the scheme aimed to “reassure” the workers that they’re not carrying the virus.

She said: “They can pop in a couple of times to make sure they’ve had that test done.

“That helps to give reassurance that they’re not necessarily Covid-positive.

“This tackles some of those asymptomatic people that are potentially carrying the virus without knowing so, and I think that adds a level of confidence, particularly for key workers.”

Management of the testing centres has been contracted out to Berkshire company Solutions 4 Health, while military planners have also had a hand in the logistics of the operation.

Mrs Doherty said there would be a limited number of booths available at first, but that the process would get quicker over time as the system gets up and running.

There are also plans for mobile testing units in the district to visit workplaces with large numbers of employees, but the focus currently is on the testing centres.

Mrs Doherty said: “There are conversations about mobile units and going to places of work with a large number of employees, and whether we can utilise a mobile unit.

“The initial first phase is very much around the centres and there’s where we’re aiming for February 8.”

The Government confirmed in a press release last week that Newbury is going to be a pilot site for one of four mobile pop-up laboratories which can accurately test for coronavirus using saliva samples.

The LamPORE test has been produced by Oxford Nanopore and was found to have an overall sensitivity of 99.57 per cent and specificity of 99.4 per cent with samples from asymptomatic participants, meaning the test is highly effective for testing people without symptoms in the community.

Since the third national lockdown was imposed on January 4, West Berkshire’s seven-day infection rate has fallen considerably.

While the rate at the beginning of January was around 420 cases per 100,000 people, as of Tuesday the rate per 100,000 people was 193.1, with 306 cases in the seven days to January 28.