Rapid testing for key workers at Bristol Port

KEY workers at Bristol Port Company are to be given rapid Covid-19 tests as part of a drive to increase testing in the region.

From tomorrow, 1,000 tests will be administered to “critical employees” at the Avonmouth-based company as part of a pilot project being carried out to find people who may be asymptomatic.

Bristol Port will be the first workplace in the city region where lateral flow tests are administered.

The tests will be given to a group of employees who do not have symptoms of Covid-19, including pilots, lockgate keepers, engineers, electricians and private ambulance staff.

Those being tested work in roles that enable the port to continue running smoothly, according to Bristol City Council, which said the jobs allow the port’s supply chain to keep moving to get essential goods distributed around the UK.

Three trained Port of Bristol employees will administer the tests and, once taken, will be able to report the results back to NHS Test and Trace after just 30 minutes.

Staff without symptoms will be tested twice a week for three months, with the local authority reviewing the process throughout.

Christina Gray, director of public health for Bristol, said the rapid testing was “not mass testing” of the population, but “one element” of a wider Government programme being carried out in a number of different settings such as the health services, universities and care homes.

The rapid testing kits have been issued to more than 50 directors of public health across England, with Bristol receiving 10,000 tests from NHS Test and Trace.

Bristol City Council said rapid testing will also begin at care organisation Sirona, which looks after adults and children across Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, and Bath and North East Somerset, adding that it was looking at ways to extend this type of testing in the New Year.