CORONAVIRUS TESTING SERVICE IS RETURNING TO REGION NEXT WEEK
Five positive cases found at Fenton Manor
A NEW Covid-19 testing service in Stoke-on-trent and Staffordshire will continue for another week, council chiefs have confirmed.
Stoke-on-trent City Council has also revealed that five people tested positive for coronavirus after attending the local service at Fenton Manor Sports Complex on Monday while 86 tests came back negative.
The city council has worked with Staffordshire County Council to provide 500 tests at various venues this week to help meet local demand, with the national testing system facing major shortages.
The 200 appointments at Fenton Manor were snapped up in a matter of hours.
This local service will run again from Monday to Friday next week, after the councils successfully secured another 500 tests.
The service will be at Fenton Manor on Monday and Tuesday, before moving to Burton on Wednesday and Thursday, and then Stafford on Friday, with 100 slots available on each day. Once again, people will be able to book tests at Fenton Manor on the city council website from 9.30am tomorrow.
But it is not yet known whether the service, which is being supported by the council’s test and trace funding from goverment, will continue beyond next week.
City council leader Abi Brown said: “We are going to be working on a week-by-week basis as it’s really difficult to judge what will be happening nationally.
“At the moment funding isn’t an issue but the funding we have won’t last forever. We expect there will be high demand for these tests again, so if people book a test we are asking them to try their best to attend.
“This week we had 24 no shows, and those are appointments that could go to someone else.
“Thanks to the tests we were able to provide, the 86 people who tested negative on Monday were able to go back to work, or back to school, which is really pleasing.
“If it had been possible to secure more than 500 tests we would have done. But the key thing is getting the tests processed – we don’t want people to be waiting too long for their results.”
People who attended the tests this week should have recieved their results within 24 hours – although some people had to wait longer.
Similar, and worse, delays have been reported with the national testing system, which has been unable to cope with the increase in demand.
Mrs Brown said it was still unclear whether more tests would be provided at local centres such as the bet365 Stadium and Newcastle town centre.
She added: “This is an issue we raised with regional colleagues earlier this week, in light of Stoke-on-trent still being an area of concern on the national Covid watchlist.
“But they reitereated that this is a national problem, which will hopefully be resolved in the longer term.”
The local testing service is only available to Stoke-on-trent and Staffordshire residents who have coronavirus symptoms.
Testing will be carried out at
Fenton Manor between 9.30am and 2pm. Only people with pre-booked appointments will be admitted.
Residents should first try to book a local test via the national booking portal at www.nhs.uk/coronavirus, or by calling 119. Tests at Burton and Stafford can be booked at www. staffordshire.gov.uk