Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
Expecting results
COUNCIL BECOMES FIRST IN CAPITAL TO DISTRIBUTE ‘PREGANCY-STYLE’ COVID-19 TESTS –
A WEST London council has become the first in the capital to start distributing new “pregnancystyle” Covid-19 tests that give results in under 30 minutes.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council (H&F) will initially give the rapid tests to staff in GP surgeries and social care – including those who are asymptomatic – from November 19.
H&F says that it will soon receive enough of the “lateral flow” swab tests from the Government to supply 20,000 people per week, from now until the end of March.
In the run up to Christmas, the council also hopes to offer the lateral flow tests to people who want to visit relatives in care homes.
Councillor Ben Coleman, the cabinet member for health, said: “Our goal is for everyone to see their loved ones safely in our care homes by getting a test on the spot. And this isn’t just for Christmas – we’ll keep the tests going next year, too.”
The Department of Health has been sending out huge quantities of the new tests to a limited number of councils across the country. Twenty-five of London’s 32 boroughs have been receiving them this week, including Ealing, Hounslow and Kensington and Chelsea, but H&F has got ahead of the game and is rolling them out early.
The council is also set to expand its local test and trace programme.
This local test and trace system is separate from the national version run by the NHS and Serco, which has struggled across the country to contact sufficient numbers of people who test positive.
Council leader Stephen Cowan, said: “With the continued high infection rates, we will do everything possible to protect people by stepping up the fight against Covid-19 with local targeted testing allied with robust track and tracing.
“I want to thank all the partners who are helping us deliver this service and appeal to everyone in the borough to continue to stick to the advice to stay at home to save lives during this lockdown.
“We can limit the dreadful effects of this pandemic if we all pull together.”
There are some concerns that the new lateral flow tests are less reliable than the standard PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests that are in common use.
On November 17, the British Medical Journal reported an explanation of this by Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, who said lateral flow tests could offer some use in terms of community surveillance.
“Even though it won’t detect as many infected individuals as the PCR test, it will identify those with the highest viral loads, and it’s those people who are most likely to go on to infect others,” professor Ball said.
“It won’t replace other tests like PCR, but it is a useful additional tool for coronavirus control.”
Anyone who experiences Covid symptoms but is not one of the key workers listed above can still order the standard PCR test kits via the Government’s website.
People who test positive after receiving the lateral flow tests will be asked to self-isolate for 14 days.
In the seven days leading up to November 13, there were 398 new cases recorded in Hammersmith and Fulham, giving the borough an infection rate of 215 positive cases per 100,000 residents.