A rapid Covid testing centre in North Hertfordshire. Credit: Cllr Jeff Jones/Twitter Rapid testing will continue to be readily available across Hertfordshire even though new cases of coronavirus have dipped considerably. The number of new weekly cases in some areas of the county are lower than the November lockdown but rapid testing is a vital way of controlling the spread of Covid-19. Primarily aimed at key workers or people who cannot work at home, the testing is for asymptomatic people to check if they unknowingly have the disease. Anyone with coronavirus symptoms must not visit a rapid testing site and instead book a test via the government website.
Rapid Covid testing sites tell people with no Covid symptoms if they are infectious or not. Credit: PA Hertfordshire County Council is continuing to expand the number of sites offering free rapid Covid tests for people with no symptoms. Infection rates continue to drop across the county but officials are ramping up the number of lateral flow tests being made available to key workers and other members of the public. To help prevent asymptomatic people passing the virus on unknowingly, the council is setting up numerous pop-up sites, offering rapid tests capable of telling someone whether they have Covid within an hour of taking a test.
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This is where you can find a pop-up rapid testing site in south Hertfordshire over the next seven days. Credit: PA The new weekly list of rapid testing locations in and around Watford for people with no coronavirus symptoms has been published. Hertfordshire County Council began its roll-out of the rapid testing programme on January 20, with pop-up sites appearing daily across the county. The lateral flow tests available at the testing sites are primarily for key and essential workers, capable of telling them within an hour of their test whether they have Covid or not. With 1 in 3 people with Covid showing no symptoms, the tests are a quick and useful way of finding people who are infectious who don’t realise they are.