Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what items of personal protective equipment people conducting covid-19 testing are required to wear to be covid-secure; and what steps the Government is taking to help ensure adequate supplies of that equipment are available for covid-19 testing.

The Government has worked with private sector partners to establish local test sites in metropolitan areas across the country. These local test sites are being used to test eligible individuals for COVID-19 without access to a car as part of the Government’s national testing programme. They are set up in different types of locations, such as car parks, town halls and sports courts, where there is space and local demand for testing.

We have detailed clinical operating procedures, developed in collaboration with clinical experts, for local walk-through testing sites. Layouts at walk-through testing sites have been carefully designed to ensure people can move around them safely and prevent spread of the virus; social distancing will be maintained throughout the testing process; and people attending the sites are asked to wear a face covering.