Majority of councils now enrolled into community testing

As many as nine in 10 local authorities in England have signed up to the community testing programme to offer regular targeted testing for people without symptoms.

The government says that 232 local authorities are now rolling out community testing, covering a population of around 42 million people and identifying thousands of positive coronavirus cases in people not showing symptoms, who could be unknowingly spreading the virus.

Designed and implemented by local authorities, community testing programmes are designed based on local authorities’ in-depth knowledge of the local area. Local authorities are currently being encouraged to target testing at people who are unable to work from home during the national lockdown.

To date, over 2.2 million lateral flow tests have been carried out by local authorities for community testing programmes, with over 44,000 positive cases found so far. Lateral flow tests deliver results in 30 minutes, helping to quickly identify and isolate positive cases and break chains of transmission.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “It is brilliant more than seven in 10 local authorities in the country are now offering rapid testing to find positive cases and break chains of transmission and even more are due to start soon. Since the community testing programme was launched in December, local authorities have undertaken incredibly innovative work to rapidly get programmes up and running in local areas, using their local expertise.”