Students, staff and pupils in Southampton to trial rapid coronavirus test
Video report by ITV News Meridian's Sally Simmonds
More than 20,000 students, pupils and staff from the University of Southampton and four local schools are to trial a rapid coronavirus test.
This is the second phase of a ground-breaking programme to evaluate large scale population testing, led by a partnership of the University of Southampton, Southampton City Council and the NHS.
Earlier this year, the partnership trialled the testing method on a large number of households in the city on a weekly basis. Nearly 10,000 people took part, trialling the at-home saliva sampling kit.
Samples will be collected on a regular basis from participants at the schools and university, and taken to the Animal and Plant Health Agency in Weybridge where they will be tested.
Results will be returned no more than 48 hours later.
The details of those who test positive will be shared with the NHS Test and Trace programme.
It is hoped the tests will stop long-term school and university closures.Keith Godfrey of the University of Southampton's MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit says: "By providing such testing in schools we aim to give pupils, parents and staff confidence in the management of infection risk in schools."
Harry Kutty, Headteacher at Cantell Secondary School and Chair of the Aspire Community Trust who represents the schools involved in this phase of the trial said: "Getting schools open and running safely and smoothly is our number one priority and anything that could potentially help give parents, teachers and staff confidence and avoid wholesale closures has to be a good thing."
The trial comes as Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced a new £500 million funding package to support trials of the new tests and explore the benefits of repeatedly testing people for the virus.
"This drive for mass testing can make an enormous difference," he said, but added how progress is "reliant on this brand new technology working".