COUNTY ADDED TO MASS COVID TESTING
COUNCIL LEADER DOESN’T KNOW ‘WHY WE WERE OVERLOOKED’
LEICESTERSHIRE has been added to the list of areas where mass coronavirus testing will be rolled out.
The county council was one of the first to respond to a request from the government for expressions of interest in joining the scheme but was left off the original list of 67 authorities that would be sent testing kits.
After “productive discussions” between Leicestershire County Council and the Department of Health and Social Care, understood to have taken place yesterday afternoon, the county will now be part of the trial.
It means the government will send the council up to 80,000 kits a week as part of its plan to expand asymptomatic testing across the country.
Council leader Nick Rushton said: “This is good news. We’ve had a productive conversation with government leads and are pleased to be included on the list. I’m grateful to those MPs who supported our case.
“Like other areas, we want to try every means possible to defeat the virus and enable life to become more normal.
“Given our early application and rates, it was surprising we weren’t named initially but this is a helpful outcome and means we can roll out the tests in hotspot areas.”
Coun Rushton had previously said he was “extremely disappointed” the authority had been overlooked.
He said the county’s exclusion had happened “despite being an early responder to the DHSC’s request for areas to come forward, and a subsequent call from government to directors of public health to sign up”.
“I do not know the reasons why we have been overlooked, despite being the first area to go in to national lockdown, and levels of infections remain higher than the national average – plus other areas included in the list have infection rates lower than ours,” he added.
The council can draw down from the national supply as needed but is looking to have a stock of 10,000 kits at any one time to deploy rapidly.
The news comes as the infection rate across the county is at its highest ever – 290 cases per 100,000.
The county will join the city – that was also left off the first list of places where testing kits would be provided – and other areas across the country in the pilot scheme.