Everyone living or working in Liverpool will be offered Covid-19 testing from Friday, whether they have symptoms or not, in the first pilot of whole-city testing as England prepares for a month-long lockdown from Thursday following a surge in cases and deaths.
The army has been called to help roll out the tests in Liverpool, which has been in the highest alert level 3. The whole-city testing is part of a new approach to deal with the virus following limitations were revealed in the controversial three-tiered regional alert level.
Officials said on Tuesday that Liverpool residents and workers will be tested using a combination of existing swab tests, as well as new lateral flow tests which can rapidly turn around results within an hour without the need to be processed in a lab.
The LAMP (Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification) technology that is able to deliver significant volumes of tests is being deployed in Liverpool hospitals for NHS staff.
The pilot will help inform a blueprint for how mass testing can be achieved and how fast and reliable Covid-19 testing can be delivered at scale, the officials added.
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.”
Defence secretary Ben Wallace added: “We will be deploying 2,000 talented Armed Forces personnel to, once again, rise to the challenges posed by Covid-19 to ensure we go above and beyond for the Liverpool community…The military are uniquely placed to help with the fight against Covid-19.”
