City’s sixth Covid-19 test centre opens in Wednesfield

Another coronavirus test site has opened in Wolverhampton today – bringing the total to six.

The walk-through site, at the Sikh Community Centre on Rookery Street in Wednesfield, has been opened with the support of the local Guru Nanak Gurdwara.

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 Wednesfield centre joins five other testing sites in the city – a drive-through centre at Aldersley Leisure Village and walk-through centres at Faulkland Street, Showell Road and Blakenhall Community Resource Centre in Wolverhampton and Mountford Lane in Bilston.

All 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. A further walk-through test centre is due to open in Whitmore Reans next week.

Councillor Jasbir Jaspal, the City of Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing, said: "Testing is a key part of the fight against coronavirus, and we are pleased to be able to make tests even more widely available to local people by opening this sixth centre in Wednesfield.

"I would like to thank our friends at the Guru Nanak Gurdwara for their support, and remind anyone who needs to get a Covid-19 test to get one as soon as possible."

Balvinder Singh Bajwa from the Guru Nanak Gurdwara said: “We are happy to give our Sikh Community Centre on Rookery Street for the testing centre to help the community to get tested and stay safe.”

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.

Meanwhile, it has been announced that Wolverhampton will be supplied with rapid turnaround Covid-19 test kits in the next few days.

The kits, which can provide results in under an hour, have been trialled in the mass testing pilot currently underway in Liverpool, and Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed on Tuesday that they would be rolled out to other parts of the country, including Wolverhampton, in the coming days.

John Denley, Wolverhampton's Director of Public Health, said: "The lateral flow Covid-19 tests give people their results inside 60 minutes, which will enable us to break chains of transmission much more quickly.

"We have watched the pilot in Liverpool with interest and expressed an interest to the Department of Health and Social Care in bringing these quick-turnaround tests to Wolverhampton. We therefore welcome this week's announcement that rapid Covid-19 tests will be provided to councils in parts of the West Midlands, including Wolverhampton.

“Testing is only part of the strategy to beat coronavirus, however, and we all need to keep doing everything we can to stop the spread of Covid-19 in the first place by following the latest lockdown guidelines, social distancing, washing our hands more often and wearing a face covering where required."

Latest data shows there were 307.58 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 people in Wolverhampton over the seven days to 9 November. That means that nearly 810 people in the city tested positive for the virus in the same seven day period – though the true number of new cases will be 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.