City’s seventh Covid-19 test centre opens in Whitmore Reans

Friday, 20 November 2020 16:33

A seventh coronavirus test site has opened in Wolverhampton.

The creation of the walk-through site, in the car park of Whitmore Reans Library on Bargate Drive, further increases testing capacity in the city.

Anyone who has symptoms of Covid-19 – including a fever, a new continuous cough or a change to their sense of taste or smell – is reminded that they must book a test by visiting www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test or by calling 119.

The Whitmore Reans test centre joins six other test sites in the city for people with symptoms of Covid-19 – a drive-through centre at Aldersley Leisure Village and walk-through centres at Faulkland Street, Showell Road and Blakenhall Community Resource Centre in Wolverhampton, the Sikh Community Centre on Rookery Street in Wednesfield, and at Mountford Lane in Bilston.

All sites are accessible via appointment only, except for the Faulkland Street centre which also has up to 50 tests per day available on a first come, first served basis for those without an appointment.

Councillor Jasbir Jaspal, the City of Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing, said: "We have worked incredibly hard, in partnership with the Department for Health and Social Care, to make Covid-19 testing available to anyone who needs it in Wolverhampton.

“We now have test centres at seven convenient locations right across the city and the message is clear, if you have symptoms, you simply must get tested.”

Details of all of Wolverhampton’s test centres can be found at www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/coronavirus-testing.

People are reminded that they should wear a face covering when attending walk-through centres, only removing these while the test is taking place.

Latest data shows there were 323.13 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 people in Wolverhampton over the seven days to 17 November. That means 850 people in the city tested positive for the virus in that seven day period – though the true number of new cases will likely be considerably higher.

The latest information and guidance around coronavirus is available at www.gov.uk/coronavirus and on the council’s own coronavirus pages at www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/coronavirus. For full details of the national lockdown measures, please visit www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/covidalert or www.gov.uk/coronavirus.