Kemi Badenoch MP has welcomed the news that Essex will benefit from the Government’s latest expansion of Covid-19 testing.
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–including in Essex.
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-turn around tests, equivalent to 10 percent of their population, building on existing partnerships between NHS Test and Trace and local leaders.
This innovative 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.
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.
Commenting, Kemi Badenoch said: “Mass testing will play a crucial role in tackling coronavirus, and I am pleased the Government are deploying these new rapid-turn around tests to Essex which can help identify thousands of people who don’t have symptoms but can still infect others without knowing.
“I receive regular briefings from Essex County Council on the number of cases and hospital admission in Uttlesford and Chelmsford. I know our local director of Public Health, the Cabinet Member for Health & Adult Social Care and senior executives at Essex County Council are working hard to ensure we have a well-established local test and tracing service to help stop the spread of the virus among our communities.”
