Mass testing plans are still being worked out
COUNTY’S PUBLIC HEALTH BOSS CAUTIOUS ON SCHEME
COUNTYIT still remains unclear how local public health bosses will use 20,000 rapid Covid tests which the Government has said have been made available in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
It had been expected that local MPS would be briefed yesterday, following a webinar between the Government and councils, which would have informed councils on how best to use the tests.
However, it is understood this meeting has now been postponed until next week, when councils hope more information will have been made available by the Government as to how the tests should be used
Yesterday, the public health director for Nottinghamshire said the Government was still working on the plans, despite the announcement being made by Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Tuesday.
He also said it was important to learn from a mass testing pilot in Liverpool.
The amounts of tests available in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire differ significantly to Liverpool.
There, anyone who wanted to was given a test, whereas the initial batch of tests made available mean fewer than one in 30 could get a test in Nottingham and one in 80 people can receive one in the county.
The Government has said it will increase this figure to one in 10, but it is unclear when this will happen.
Speaking yesterday, Nottinghamshire’s Director of Public Health Jonathan Gribbin said plans for mass testing are still being worked on with the Government.
But he remained cautious on the scheme and said: “We’re wanting to do some further work locally keeping ourselves informed from the Government about how they see some of this being deployed effectively.
“We’ll come forward with some plans about how we will deploy lateral flow tests for people in Nottinghamshire in a way that has a proper impact. “We’re not in a position to come forward with that at the moment. “My caution about mass testing was that in my mind it sounds to me
It sounds to me like testing thouands and thouands of people across a population
like testing thousands and thousands of people across a population.
“So not something which is targeted but broad brush and general.”
He also said that he’d like to see the Liverpool pilot scheme brought to a close first so that data could be examined and lessons learned for taking it further.
The Government has said it will ultimately be up to public health bosses to decide how best to use the the new tests.
Jonathan Gribbin