UK to test everybody in Liverpool for coronavirus

Everyone living or working in Liverpool will be offered Covid-19 testing from Friday, whether they have symptoms or not, in the first pilot of whole-city testing as England prepares for a month-long lockdown from Thursday following a surge in infections.

The army has been called to help roll out the tests in Liverpool, which has been in the highest alert level 3. The whole-city testing is part of a new approach to deal with the virus following limitations revealed in the controversial three-tiered regional alert level.

Officials said on Tuesday that Liverpool residents and workers will be tested using a combination of existing swab tests, as well as new lateral flow tests which can rapidly turn around results within an hour without the need to be processed in a lab.

The LAMP (Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification) technology that is able to deliver significant volumes of tests is being deployed in Liverpool hospitals for NHS staff.

“These tests will help identify the many thousands of people in the city who don’t have symptoms but can still infect others without knowing,” said Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

“Dependent on their success in Liverpool, we will aim to distribute millions of these new rapid tests between now and Christmas and empower local communities to use them to drive down transmission in their areas, “Johnson added.

Germany: Hundreds of thousands in quarantine Hundreds of thousands of people in Germany are in quarantine because they have tested positive for the coronavirus or have come into contact with someone who has Covid-19, health minister Jens Spahn said on Tuesday.

In Russia, coronavirus cases could peak in the middle of

November, the country’s consumer health watchdog estimated on Tuesday.

The peak would be roughly mid-November, Alexander Gorelov, deputy director of a research institute at Rospotrebnadzor, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Russia reported 18,648 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, that growth in new infections was slowing.

Dubai ruler participates in Covid-19 vaccine trial Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum said on Tuesday he had received an experimental coronavirus vaccine, becoming the latest United Arab Emirates official to take part in the trials.

Two vaccines are undergoing third-phase trials in the UAE, one produced by Chinese drug giant Sinopharm, and Russia’s Sputnik-V, named after the Soviet-era satellite.