Taking the Test

 

This morning Andrew Scott-Clark, KCC’s Director of Public Health and I attended the site (Sheerness Working Men’s Club in Halfway on the Isle of Sheppey) of one of the two asymptomatic testing centres that will start carrying out tests tomorrow. The military planners whose giving us logistical support were present, along with representatives from Swale Borough Council. 

This was a chance to see the centre in operation and to brief and be interviewed by media representatives, including BBC South East and ITV Meridian. Andrew and I took the ‘lateral flow’ Covid test. I did not record exactly how long it took for the result (negative) to come through, but it was about half an hour or just a little longer. The centre staff were very helpful and the process smooth.

For tomorrow, invitations have gone out to key workers and their families, and we expect to then invite the wider local population.

In my interviews, I was asked - unsurprisingly and reasonably- about Kent’s high Covid -19 infection levels, and what can be done to reduce them. I emphasised the actions we are taking with respect to testing, local contact tracing and constant honing of our approach to communications and compliance. The full explanation for Kent’s extraordinary surge in infections, much of it during the period of the second national lockdown, remains unclear, though the emergence of a second, more infectious form of the virus may have played its part. Certainly there has been a recent surge across many parts of the south east, with many areas (such as large parts of our neighbours Essex, Surrey and East Sussex) joining Kent in Tier 3.

Nonetheless, as the Health Secretary pointed out in Parliament today, rates in our county are exceptionally high: “Be really cautious in Kent. It is the area of the country which has the biggest problem.” We are under no illusions as to the scale of the task in turning this round.