Two more walk-in Covid-19 testing sites are set to open in Wolverhampton this week.
Last week, Showell Road, off Stafford Road, began accepting walk-ins in addition to pre-booked drive-through tests.
The number of cases in the city has dropped from 17.5 cases per 100,000 people to 11 cases per 100,000 people in the past week.
Two further sites will open this week as part of continued efforts by City of Wolverhampton Council to make testing more accessible.
The first will open at Whitmore Reans Health Centre in Lowe Street tomorrow (Tuesday). A second site is expected to open in Bilston later this week, details of which will be announced in due course.
Opening times for Whitmore Reans Health Centre are as follows:
Testing is available free of charge to anyone who has symptoms of Covid-19, no matter how mild. These include a fever, a new, continuous cough and loss or change to a person’s sense of taste and smell.
Councillor Jasbir Jaspal, the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing, said: “Testing is incredibly important. It helps us prevent Covid-19 from spreading so we can save lives, protect our health and care systems, support our city to recover economically and, ultimately, help people safely return to normal life.
“As lockdown measures are eased and we move into the next phase of living with Covid-19, our overriding priority is to ensure people can get tested so that we can try and keep coronavirus under control.
“We have prioritised testing from the very early days of the pandemic. We are proud of the fact that Wolverhampton was one of the first places in the country to establish a drive-through test centre and to roll out proactive testing into local care homes.
“We are aware that coronavirus remains prevalent in Wolverhampton so the message is simple; if you have got symptoms – no matter how mild – you simply must get a test.”
People who don’t live within walking distance and have symptoms are urged not to use public transport to the sites but to drive themselves where possible.
Anyone who has symptoms of Covid-19 should immediately self-isolate for 10 days and book a test by visiting www.gov.uk/coronavirus or by calling 119 as soon as possible.
Anyone who tests positive for Covid-19 will be contacted by NHS Test and Trace and will be asked to share information about people that have been close contacts recently.
If NHS Test and Trace ask you to self-isolate due to contact with a person who has coronavirus, you should stay home and not attend the test centre, unless you then develop symptoms yourself.
People can also use the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust's Ask A&E tool at http://rwt.nhs.uk/askaande/ to input and monitor their symptoms and speak to a healthcare professional via video chat if required.
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. There’s lots of advice on how people can protect themselves and their families from coronavirus from the NHS at www.nhs.uk/coronavirus.
The council’s Stay Safe, Be Kind campaign offers clear and simple advice about how people can help themselves, and how they can support others who may be particularly vulnerable at this time. For more information, please visit www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/stay-safe-be-kind.
