Oral Answers to Questions

Karl McCartney Excerpts

Tuesday 12th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Heather Wheeler (South Derbyshire) (Con)]

What progress his Department has made on rolling out community testing for covid-19.

[Karl MᶜCartney (Lincoln) (Con)]

What progress his Department has made on rolling out community testing for covid-19.

[The Minister for Care (Helen Whately)]

Community asymptomatic testing is an important tool in the fight against covid-19. We have delivered more than 5 million lateral flow tests to the 117 local authorities that have already gone live with testing their communities, and we are rapidly expanding the programme to all remaining local authorities in England, as well as working with devolved Administrations on their plans.

--- Later in debate ---

[Helen Whately]

I join my hon. Friend in welcoming the opening of community testing centres in Swadlincote. Asymptomatic testing enables us to pick up cases in high prevalence areas that otherwise would go undetected, which means that we can break chains of transmission. There has been extensive clinical evaluation from Public Health England and Oxford University, which shows that lateral flow tests are appropriate for that use. They identify over two thirds of all people who have covid-19 but often do not have symptoms and, importantly, they catch the vast majority with a high viral load.

[Karl MᶜCartney [V]]

What can be done to provide schoolteachers in Lincoln and across the country with readily available rapid lateral flow antigen tests, to enable them to carry on teaching, schools to stay open and maybe exams to be taken?

[Helen Whately]

I can assure my hon. Friend that most secondary schools and colleges have already set up testing sites and have begun weekly testing, using lateral flow devices for staff currently in school. Staff could also participate in daily contact testing on site, and primary schools will shortly be receiving test kits for weekly staff testing and also for daily contact testing.