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Residents can now collect free rapid testing kits to use at home from Lateral Flow Test sites across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

The move follows the recent announcement that all people in England can access twice-weekly rapid tests, helping to meet the aims of the national roadmap and allowing everyone to move safely out of lockdown.

There are eight Lateral Flow Test sites in Cambridgeshire and two in Peterborough, set up to test asymptomatic people.

In Peterborough, a new rapid testing site is now open at St Andrews’s Church in Ledbury Road, Netherton, replacing the site at Nene Valley Community Centre. The new site is open Monday to Friday 8am – 7pm and Saturday 9am – 5pm.

Residents can also collect home testing kits from PCR testing sites and pharmacies that have signed up to offer Pharmacy Collect.

Many local employers are offering supervised testing or home testing kits to staff. If your employer offers workplace testing, this is still the best route for you to access rapid tests.

For people who can’t access tests through these routes, you can order a box of tests online or by calling 119, which will be delivered to your home.

Dr Liz Robin, director of public health for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said: “Twice-weekly rapid testing is actively helping to identify cases of Covid-19 that would otherwise be missed.

“With 1 in 3 people with coronavirus showing no symptoms and potentially spreading it without knowing, rapid testing helps to identify positive cases quickly, preventing the spread of infection.

“We need everybody to get into the habit of twice-weekly testing as part of our everyday lives.

“A one-off test will offer little benefit as it can only provide information about likelihood of being infectious at that point in time.

“Twice-weekly testing will help to keep each other safe and alongside the ongoing vaccine rollout, it will help us to move forward with the roadmap out of lockdown.”