Thousands of people have waited hours for a rapid-onset coronavirus test in Liverpool before spending Christmas Day with loved ones.
Long queues were created outside test centers across the city on Christmas Eve, a day after some sites were turned away due to “incredible demand”.
It came as the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that coronavirus transmission was on the rise across England, with one in 85 people contracting the disease last week – up from one in 115 two weeks earlier.
Liverpool city council said nearly 10,000 people will be tested on Wednesday – up from around 3,500 a day on average – with waiting times of up to two hours at most sites on Thursday as queues work. comes from 6.30am in near-freezing temperatures. The city is one of the only places in the UK to run walk-in test centers for people without 30-minute test marks.
Matthew Ashton, the city’s director of public health, said there had been “high demand” for the tests before the end of Christmas, but warned that a negative result could not mean people could disregard social distance or other hygiene advice.
He said: “We are reminding people that a negative test is not a green pass to neglect social distance, hand hygiene, wearing a front cover and the other measures in place to prevent it. the virus. We are also urging people without vulnerable relatives to be around Christmas Day, to keep them safe. Covid is a Christmas present that you do not want to give or receive. ”
Interactive rapid lateral flow test
The late-stream devices, first tested in the city, are being distributed to more than 100 other local authorities, with many planning their use mainly in workplaces, schools and care homes.
All but two of the 16 asymptomatic test centers that opened in Liverpool were “very busy” on Thursday morning, according to a council map. The Liverpool Echo reported that hundreds of people were waiting in the morning at one site in Southport, which it said had tested 250 people before about 10am, compared to less than 500 a day. last week.
Figures released by the ONS on Thursday suggested Covid-19 had 645,800 people in England last week, with sharp rises in London, the south-east and the east. a country thought to have been linked to the new hyper-infectious strain found in the UK earlier this month.
About two-thirds of people who do advanced testing in these areas could have the new variant, the ONS said, adding that this was only a gene-based estimate confirmed by the tests . The percentage of people with Covid-19 increased in Wales and Northern Ireland but fell in Scotland in the same period.