One large coronavirus testing site and more mobile tests being planned for Lincolnshire

The Department of Health announced the plan for the new site last night as officials look to increase testing capacity.

Tony McGinty, assistant director of public health at Lincolnshire County Council, confirmed that the current three sites would be closed down “if the new facility works well”.

The site at Lincolnshire Showground, which will be appointment only tests for key workers, will be piloted for its first few days and run by Serco and Boots.

It comes as part of a government plan to ramp up testing for thousands of key workers across the country.

Local health bosses recently set a target for 1,000 tests per day across the two sites at Lincoln and one in Boston.

Mr McGinty said officials were still working on the logistics of the showground site before planning to phase out the sites at Yarborough Leisure Centre, Bracebridge Heath and Princess Anne Sports Centre in Boston.

“We would need to make sure that we have worked on the detail, worked on the logistics and had a test run to make sure it is working,” he said.

“What we would not want to do is stand down the the three other sites and find out there are problems.”

He added that the site at the showground would provide a larger capacity, easier access for drivers and help to meet testing targets set by local health bosses.

The plan for a single site comes as the government has looked to increase testing capacity across the country in order to reach more people.

Deputy Chief Constable Jason Harwin, chairman of the Lincolnshire Resilience Forum which has led local plans to tackle COVID-19, said a single site would be easier but may have its challenges with staff travelling.

“The challenge is that people who can go through testing now has increased and expanded and, to [meet that demand], if we just had one location that would create an issue with people travelling,” he said.

“However, if we can take testing closer that brings a lot of benefit as well.”

He added mobile testing would enable responses to be more flexible and reach some of the more extreme areas of the county without potentially-ill people having to travel long-distances.

It comes as the county saw its biggest spike in daily case numbers since the first patient was tested positive in March.

An increase of 76 cases were confirmed yesterday (April 23) taking the total number to 669.

Mr McGinty put the rise down to an increase in testing across the county.

He said as well as carrying out tests on the NHS frontline, around 140 council and care workers had been tested since last week.

“The more tests that we do, the more of the disease that we will find,” he said.

Mr Harwin warned against being complacent after experts said the coronavirus pandemic had peaked nationally.

He said bosses were “where we expected to be realistically” and pointed out that the county had previously been a week behind the national average – two weeks behind London.

“While every death is one too many the key issue is the risk still exists out there.

“If we start moving away from social distancing and the key messages around essential travel there’s a real risk we’ll go back to escalating demands on the NHS and they won’t be able to cope.

“If that happens we’ll be back to where we didn’t want to be at the start.”

He said recovery would be a “long haul” but that there would need to be a transition period.

He added much of the debate would be led by central government advice but that discussions were taking place around small businesses and key council services such as tips.