Covid tests for key workers

COVID-19 tests for key workers will start to be rolled out in Oxfordshire early next month.

Rapid lateral flow tests will be used to help identify people who have covid but display no symptoms.

Oxfordshire County Council says identifying infectious individuals early, isolating them and tracing their contacts can reduce transmission of the virus significantly.

The new service will be for those who have to leave home to go to work during lockdown.

This is in addition to existing lateral flow testing that is already happening in places such as care homes, hospitals and schools. It will start with the police and fire service and gradually expand to others not covered by the national initiative.

Ansaf Azhar, the council’s director of public health, said: “We are working closely with partners, both locally and nationally, to plan the effective rollout of community testing.

“It is now believed that one in three people infected with covid does not know that they have the virus.

“The rapid spread of the highly infectious new variant of coronavirus makes community testing for those who work outside the home an even greater priority.

“This will allow us to better identify asymptomatic carriers of covid-19 and so help us more effectively control the virus and stop the spread.”