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Rapid testing identifies 500 asymptomatic people

Posted on Monday 8th February 2021

Staffordshire’s mass community testing programme has identified over 500 people without Covid symptoms since its roll-out began.

Staffordshire County Council began its rapid testing blitz to tackle the “silent spreaders”, people who carry the virus but have no symptoms, back towards the end of 2020 with Community Testing Centres in each district and borough supported by mobile pop-ups and local businesses testing staff.

This is 500 people taken out of circulation who could have unknowingly spread the deadly virus to their families and around the wider community. This has prevented more than 1000 other cases.

The number of cases of Covid in the county has been coming down steadily but remains high, more than 230 new cases every week per 100,000 population, a little above the England average.

However, the council is still strongly urging people who need to be out and about to get a test, even if they do not display symptoms, and especially if they live in a hotspot area.

Dr Johnny McMahon Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Health, Care and Wellbeing, said:

“Passing this milestone demonstrates the vital importance of asymptomatic testing to help prevent the spread of infection.

“Our network of community testing centres, open seven days a week means we have plenty of capacity, which is great.

“However, it is up to individual people to recognise they may be carrying the virus without symptoms to take the positive action and get a test.

“Testing is free, simple and you get your results in around 30 minutes - as these figures show is making a contribution to driving down cases in Staffordshire and saving lives.”

Staffordshire residents are now able to drop into Community Testing Centres to get a rapid Covid-19 test.  Walk ins are subject to availability at each individual site - to secure a slot, booking on our community testing sites page is still recommended.

People with symptoms or those who have been asked to self-isolate as a close contact of a Covid case should not attend.

Anyone with symptoms should only book a national test at www.nhs.uk/coronavirus

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