A rapid community testing initiative has launched in High Wycombe and Aylesbury in a bid to drive down Covid-19 transmission rates. 

Lateral flow tests are being provided by NHS Test and Trace as part of a new pilot to start testing people who are leaving home to go to work or volunteer and are public-facing. 

Rapid-turnaround lateral flow tests are a new type of technology, which provide results within an hour, and will be used to proactively test asymptomatic individuals.

Lateral flow devices do not require a laboratory to process the test.

Around one in three people who are infected with Covid-19 have no symptoms so could be spreading the disease without knowing it.

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Testing will be available for asymptomatic individuals - people who are leaving home to go to work or volunteer and are public facing from today, Monday, February 8.

For more information on how to get a test, visit www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/coronavirus/bookarapidtest/. 

Gareth Williams, Cabinet Member for Communities and Public Health at Buckinghamshire Council said: “Lateral flow testing is an easy and practical way to help keep our frontline workers and those they come into contact with safe.

"It is essential that we do everything in our power to break the chain of transmission.

"It’s important to remember that even with a negative test result you will still need to take the same safety measures – hands, face, space as you may pick up the virus after leaving the test site.”

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Baroness Dido Harding, Interim Executive Chair of the National Institute for Health Protection, said: “NHS Test and Trace continues to play a leading role in the fight against Covid-19.

"Increased community testing is a vital additional tool at our disposal to help identify those who are infected and infectious, but unaware that they might be spreading the disease.

“The work of Buckinghamshire will be essential in driving down transmission rates. I urge all those living in areas where community testing is offered to come forward and get tested.”