West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has urged local people to get into the habit of regular Covid testing as schools prepare to fully re-open and business plan to welcome customers back through their doors.
Pershore Leisure Centre’s new Lateral Flow Testing site (l-r) Harriett Baldwin MP and Councillor John Smith.
The MP visited one of Worcestershire County Council’s new testing centres, in Pershore, for a briefing on the plans to encourage more people to get a test if they are required to go into a workplace.
Harriett attended the Pershore Leisure Centre site and was tested for Covid-19 during the visit, with her negative result available in less than 30 minutes.
She was joined by Councillor John Smith, who is the cabinet member responsible for public health and has been overseeing the county’s response to Covid-19
Harriett said: “Our local public health team has been working at great pace to roll out a successful vaccination programme and also to ramp up testing capacity so that anyone who needs to get a test can have one.
“There are groups of people who have had to keep visiting their workplaces throughout this latest period of lockdown and this extra testing will be able to offer them greater certainty about their health as they go about their work.
“Testing is also crucial to smooth the return to school and allow people to visit relatives in care homes so I’m urging people to get a test if they feel they need one, whether they have symptoms or not.
“The tests are easy and fast and now there are convenient locations opening up all over the county.”