Doncaster signs up for Government's rapid coronavirus community test roll-out

Regular rapid testing for people without coronavirus symptoms will be made available across England this week, the government has said.

The community testing regime - expanded to cover all 317 local authorities - uses rapid lateral flow tests, which can return results in 30 minutes.

Local councils are being encouraged to prioritise tests for those who cannot work from home during the lockdown.

The Department of Health and Social Care said expanding the Community Testing Programme to more people without symptoms was "crucial given that around one in three people" who contract Covid-19 show no symptoms.

It said regular community testing using the rapid tests had already identified more than 14,800 positive Covid-19 cases.

So far, 131 local authorities in England have enrolled in the government's community testing programme, with Milton Keynes, Slough, Doncaster and Essex the latest to join.

It comes as the UK wide total of coronavirus deaths passed 80,000 yesterday following another 1,000 plus fatalities.

In Doncaster, there have been 610 deaths since the start of the pandemic in March, while more than 1,500 patients have been successfully treated and discharged by Doncaster and Bassetlaw NHS Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust which runs Doncaster Royal Infirmary, Mexborough’s Montagu Hospital and Bassetlaw Hospital in Worksop.

Last week, the Trust said it was treating more than 110 Covid patients in its hospitals, with twenty of them receiving intensive care treatment.