Council to buy Covid-19 swabs
“WE ARE preparing for the worst, and hoping for the best.”
That’s the message from the executive member for health and wellbeing on Wokingham Borough Council, Cllr Charles Margetts.
He says that the council is doing everything it can to get ready for the secondwave of the coronavirus, and is planning to spend £120,000 on privately sourced Covid-19 tests for the borough’s keyworkers if a plan is passed by the council’s executive tonight (Thursday).
The move comes after the government-backed system runs into problems, with people struggling to book tests or being asked to travel to the other end of the country to receive one.
Executive member for adult social care Cllr Charles Margetts said: “We could sit around and wait for the national system to be sorted out – but I’d rather we took action to protect our people.
“All through this crisis we have acted quickly to keep people as safe as possible and, once again, we are having to act at a local level.
“We did the same thing with PPE (sourcing our own supply when the national supply was struggling) and with care homes when we instigated our own controls to stop hospital patients being admitted to homes with Covid-19 and put a task force in place to make sure homes were ready.
“The kits we are looking to buy provide the whole service – tests, transfer to labs, lab analysis capacity, results returned within 48 hours and notification of any positives to Public Health England – they are the real deal.”
It is anticipated that the tests will be ready to be used from October 5.
The private testing facility is just one of a number of measures that the council is currently preparing ahead of any second wave of the coronavirus within Wokingham borough. However, compared to other parts of the country, the number of cases is still low.
Last week, Wokingham Borough Council said that it had been lobbying the government for adequate local testing facilities, and it was asking residents to help by calling 111 if they felt they had Covid symptoms.
The council added that priority is being given to areas where there are more Covid cases, so Wokingham borough, with a lower number of reported cases, has less capacity.
While the government has argued that an increase in demand is being caused by people asking for a test when they don’t need one, there are also concerns that we are heading for a second wave.
In a statement, Meradin Peachey, acting director of Public Health Berkshire, said: “The testing system is prioritising areas of the country where there are higher levels of Covid infections.
“Berkshire has lower case numbers than elsewhere and in the last week over 97% tests on Berkshire residents were negative.”
At a virtual council meeting, held on Thursday, September 17, Cllr Charles Margetts told the chamber: “Wokingham is a very low-risk area for Covid and everyone is working very hard to keep it that way.
“The NHS Track and Trace app will be live on September 24, there have been months of work to get this ready. We’ve looked at the other apps on the market and I’m convinced that this is by far the best one, I’d encourage all members, residents and local businesses to adopt it. It’s a key part of how we fight Covid.”
He added that the response to Covid in the Wokingham borough community will be changing and “what we call community response part two” will be launching soon.
“This has an emphasis on mental health, aimed at helping people who are at home, facing loneliness or “too scared to come out and need support”.
Speaking to Wokingham.Today after themeeting, Cllr Margetts said: “There are obviously well-known problems with testing, which we’re extremely cross about,” he said. “We have made the decision to buy testing, and reserve capacity for swab tests.
“Assuming the executive approve this purchase on Thursday, theywill be available by early October.”
And he said that by taking this action, it ensures that the council’s keyworkers, such as adult services, social workers, educational staff, can receive Covid-19 tests if needed.
“If there is another outbreak, people can get access to testing quickly,” Cllr Margetts said.
If approved, the council will draw up criteria for the test allocation and will monitor the national testing capacity and local use of kits to decide if more are needed.