Liverpool To Offer Covid 19 Mass Testing

It has been announced that as part of a pilot study, everyone in the city of Liverpool will be tested to see whether or not they have Covid 19. They will also be able to be tested on a regular basis i.e. every two weeks or so to see if their infection status changes.

Some will get new tests giving results within an hour which, if successful, could be rolled out to "millions" by Christmas. That's according to leading figures in the UK government.

At the moment Liverpool has one of the highest rates of Covid 19 deaths in England and it is hoped by testing everyone on a regular basis, the government will then be able to get a handle on how quickly the disease is spreading and find ways to treat it or develop a cure quicker.

There are currently 352 cases per 100, 000 in the city. The average area in England had 153.

On Monday, the UK recorded 18,950 new confirmed cases of coronavirus and 136 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

This pilot study has been targetted at Liverpool as it is the main place in England which has some of the most cases of Covid 19 in England and by tested as many people as possible, health services can identify as many people as possible who have the virus and advise them that they need to self-isolate. This then breaks the chain of transmission so the virus can't spread that easily as much as it depends on how much social contact people have with others.

Many people who are infected with the Covid 19 virus show no symptoms which makes it even more deadly as people are normally only advised to go and get tested if they have symptoms. Some people may be asymptomatic which means they outwardly display no symptoms of the virus. To be safe, everyone is advised to go and get tested whether they have symptoms or not.

The system will start this week and it will include a variety of existing swab tests and new lateral flow tests which provide results with in an hour and don't require the use of a lab to analyse the results.

New testing centres are being set up around the city including in schools, colleges and universities and this should mean as many people as possible can have access to a place where they can get tested quickly and easily.

Around two thousand military personnel will help plan logistics and ensure that someone is available to make sure that the testing system runs quickly and smoothly.

There has been a mixture of responses to the new testing system from the general public with many not seeing the point in having a test if they don't have any symptoms. Many people don't understand that they may be a-symptomatic carriers and be able to spread the disease that way so it is extremely important for everyone to have a test when and where they can to ensure that everyone is safe and protected.

Announcing the pilot, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "These tests will help identify the many thousands of people in the city who don't have symptoms but can still infect others without knowing.

"Dependent on their success in Liverpool, we will aim to distribute millions of these new rapid tests between now and Christmas and empower local communities to use them to drive down transmission in their areas.

"It is early days, but this kind of mass testing has the potential to be a powerful new weapon in our fight against Covid-19."

"It hopefully means that when we come out of national lock down on the 2nd December that Liverpool will be able to come out of tier three [the strictest restrictions] and go into a lower tier, enabling us to have eased measures heading towards Christmas," . That's according to Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson.

Are you in favour of this new testing system and do you think it should be rolled out nationally?