Coronavirus: inside the UK’s government plan to launch city-wide Covid testing
Programme hailed as ‘first glimpse’ of an exit strategy from lockdown
Up to 500,000 people in Liverpool are set to be tested for Covid-19 under a government plan aimed at avoiding future lockdown measures.
The city has one of the highest coronavirus rates in England and volunteered for the scheme after being placed under Tier 3 restrictions on 14 October.
Originally trailed under the name Operation Moonshot, the plan is is being hailed as the “first glimpse of an exit strategy” from the nationwide lockdown that begins this Thursday, says Politico London Playbook’s Alex Wickham.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Testing, testing, testing
The testing scheme begins on Friday and will cover everyone living and working in Liverpool, which recorded Covid case rates of 366.4 per 100,000 people in the week to 29 October. A variety of test types will be administered by NHS staff aided by 2,000 Armed Forces personnel.
“Residents and workers will be tested using a combination of existing swab tests, as well as 500,000 new lateral flow tests, which can rapidly turn around results within an hour without the need to be processed in a lab,” Sky News reports. And everyone in the city will be offered repeat testing, even if asymptomatic.
To be considered a success, however, the plan “will need not only to find those who are infected regardless of symptoms, but convince them to self-isolate”, says The Guardian. “Only 20% to 25% of people are estimated to quarantine fully when asked to do so by test and trace.”
Given this lack of compliance, the government is also understood to be considering plans to cut the period of self-isolation from 14 days to seven days.
Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson, whose brother Bill died from Covid-19 last month, said: “We are seeing a slow reduction in figures in Liverpool which shows we are on the right path and residents and businesses are working together and following guidelines for the greater good.
“We hope this new initiative boosts our efforts, and we will continue to see the numbers of positive cases drop across the city.”
Slovakia-model
The Liverpool plan is modelled on Slovakia, which has grabbed headlines worldwide by pulling off “a feat that no other country has managed”, says Politico.
Over the weekend, more than 3.6 million Slovaks over the age of nine were given swab tests - a total that represents 95% of the targeted population. Of those tested, 38,359 got a positive result, but the remainder are being exempted from a curfew imposed this week, allowing them to go about their normal lives.
Prime Minister Igor Matovic said the nationwide testing programme was a “significant step for all of Slovakia” that means “we don’t have to kill the economy”.
“This is a smarter solution,” he added.
Slovakia has fared comparatively well in tackling the pandemic, with latest figures showing that the country had recorded 61,829 Covid-19 infections and just 219 deaths.
Glimmer of hope
The Liverpool testing programme is intended to “very quickly” form a blueprint for mass testing for the rest of the UK, writes Politico’s Wickham.
Emphasising that goal, a Department of Health official told the new site that the “Liverpool pilot will inform the rest of the rollout, but we want to move quickly to take advantage of this and are considering where to deploy it next”.
The hope is to offer all Britons a test in time for Christmas, a “senior figure involved in the programme” told The Times.
Experts say that weekly tests could “halve the reproduction rate”, adds The Telegraph, and allow “the rest of the population to resume activities”.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
Today's political cartoons - December 22, 2024
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - the long and short of it, trigger finger, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 hilariously spirited cartoons about the spirit of Christmas
Cartoons Artists take on excuses, pardons, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Inside the house of Assad
The Explainer Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez, ruled Syria for more than half a century but how did one family achieve and maintain power?
By The Week UK Published
-
Jay Bhattacharya: another Covid-19 critic goes to Washington
In the Spotlight Trump picks a prominent pandemic skeptic to lead the National Institutes of Health
By David Faris Published
-
John Prescott: was he Labour's last link to the working class?
Today's Big Quesiton 'A total one-off': tributes have poured in for the former deputy PM and trade unionist
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Last hopes for justice for UK's nuclear test veterans
Under the Radar Thousands of ex-service personnel say their lives have been blighted by aggressive cancers and genetic mutations
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Will Donald Trump wreck the Brexit deal?
Today's Big Question President-elect's victory could help UK's reset with the EU, but a free-trade agreement with the US to dodge his threatened tariffs could hinder it
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
What is the next Tory leader up against?
Today's Big Question Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick will have to unify warring factions and win back disillusioned voters – without alienating the centre ground
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
What is Lammy hoping to achieve in China?
Today's Big Question Foreign secretary heads to Beijing as Labour seeks cooperation on global challenges and courts opportunities for trade and investment
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Bob Woodward's War: the explosive Trump revelations
In the Spotlight Nobody can beat Watergate veteran at 'getting the story of the White House from the inside'
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Trump kept up with Putin, sent Covid tests, book says
Speed Read The revelation comes courtesy of a new book by Bob Woodward
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published