Covid-19 testing at Newcastle’s Civic Centre to be suspended next week
A testing facility for people without symptoms of Covid-19 at Newcastle’s Civic Centre is to be suspended next week after an increase in people using of home-testing kits.
Supervised Lateral Flow Device testing has been available there since January 2021, but now self-testing kits are available, the service will close - with the last tests being carried out on June 25.
Over 9,500 tests have been carried out through the council-led community testing programme since it began in January.
Around 900 tests were carried out per week at its peak in March.
This has now dropped to around 100 per week, with some days having fewer than 10 bookings.
Cllr John-Paul Stephenson, Newcastle City Council cabinet member for Public Health and Culture, said: “I’d like to thank all those who have helped run our testing sites at the Civic Centre and Westgate College; there is no doubt these facilities have helped to reduce outbreaks among residents and workforces in Newcastle, potentially saving countless lives.
“However, as the way people access asymptomatic testing changes, we need to be proactive and make sure we’re providing the best support to our communities that we can.
Lateral Flow Device tests can be used by people without symptoms of Covid-19 to identify if they have the virus without realising.
As many as one in three infected people display no symptoms at all but could still pass the virus to others who may be at a greater risk of serious illness.