Twice-weekly Covid tests to be made available to everyone in Wakefield this week - how you can collect home tests for your family

Twice-weekly Covid tests will be made available to everyone in Wakefield this week, it has been confirmed.
Twice-weekly Covid tests will be made available to everyone in Wakefield this week, it has been confirmed.Twice-weekly Covid tests will be made available to everyone in Wakefield this week, it has been confirmed.
Twice-weekly Covid tests will be made available to everyone in Wakefield this week, it has been confirmed.

Following an announcement from Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday, Wakefield Council has now confirmed plans to offer lateral flow tests to everyone in the district from Friday.

It comes as it is confirmed that the district currently has the third highest rate of Covid-19 cases in the UK, with a rate almost three times the national average.

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Anna Hartley, Wakefield’s Director of Public Health said: “While the vaccine offers us a way out in the future, getting into the habit of twice-weekly rapid testing offers us an additional way to keep each other safe and reduce the spread of the virus.

“We need the support of as many organisations as possible, both to deliver testing and, crucially, to help spread the message that twice-weekly rapid testing is a core part of returning to a life as normal as possible, as quickly as possible.

“What’s most important is that as many people as possible take up the offer of twice-weekly rapid testing, whichever route they use.”

Twice-weekly lateral flow tests, which give results in as little as 30 minutes, were made available to school pupils, staff and their families in March.

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But they will now be rolled out to everyone in Wakefield and the Five Towns.

Tests can be administered in person at sites Wakefield Market Hall, Holywell Lane Day Centre, Castleford and Kinsley and Fitzwilliam Community Centre, with appointments available here.

Alternatively, lateral flow tests can be collected from NHS Test and Trace sites and selected pharmacies, or ordered for home delivery by contacted the dedicated NHS coronavirus helpline on 119.

Visit wakefield.gov.uk to find out more.

Two new mobile testing units have also opened in the district this week, as part of an effort to tackle high case rates.