Schools praised for "magnificent" testing efforts

Wolverhampton schools have been praised for their 'magnificent' efforts in ensuring secondary pupils have been able to access Covid-19 testing to support their safe return to the classroom.

Wolverhampton's Director of Public Health John Denley and the City of Wolverhampton Council's Director of Children's Services Emma Bennett have written to headteachers to thank them and their staff for their hard work over the last few weeks. 

At one stage, as many as 6,000 rapid Covid-19 tests were being carried out in the city’s schools each day to enable children and young people to return to face-to-face education. Now the onus is on pupils to have regular rapid tests at home. 

They wrote: "We have seen exceptional levels of consent across many of our settings, which has ensured that we have one of the highest rates of testing in the region. This is down to the excellent drive you have given testing amongst your school community.  

“We know that as many as one in three people can carry and transmit the virus without displaying any symptoms and, as we move forward now, testing continues to be important.  

“By everyone testing regularly we can identify cases more quickly and act faster to reduce the spread of the virus in education settings and our communities. 

"Early identification and isolation of these cases will reduce chains of transmission and enable the education sector to continue to operate as normal as is possible in these unprecedented times. It will also help to protect our most vulnerable family members, pupils and staff." 

They call on schools to continue to encourage all staff and secondary-age pupils, as well as households and ‘bubbles’ of staff members and pupils, to carry out twice weekly testing, either at home or at one of Wolverhampton’s rapid Covid-19 test centres. 

Free Covid-19 home test kits are available for collection from Pendeford Library (between 7am-11am daily), Ashmore Park Hub (between 8am-11am on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays) and the Civic Centre (between 10am-1pm on Saturdays and Sundays). 

They are also available from the PCR test centres at Showell Road, Blakenhall Resource Centre, Whitmore Reans Library, Faulkland Street car park, and Mountford Lane car park, Bilston between 2.30pm and 8pm each day. 

People can collect up to two boxes – containing a total of 14 kits – at a time. They come with step-by-step instructions enabling people to complete their test and report their results from the comfort of home. People taking tests at home must report their test result, even if it is negative, to help keep everyone safe and build up an accurate picture of the spread of the virus in the city. 

Alternatively, people can get tested at one of Wolverhampton's rapid test sites – for details, please visit www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/coronavirus-testing. 

Please note, secondary pupils will be provided with home test kits by their school. 

Rapid testing is not available for people who have symptoms of Covid-19, including a fever, a new continuous cough or a change to the sense of taste or smell, or people who have been told to isolate. Anyone with symptoms should immediately self-isolate and book a PCR test by visiting www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test or calling 119.