With rising Covid-19 rates in Oldham, military personnel have been approved to step up the testing effort in the borough's schools.
On-site school testing enables young people to complete rapid lateral flow tests twice a week, to detect cases of Covid-19 that may be infectious but have no symptoms.
Identifying a positive case and asking students to self-isolate at the earliest opportunity helps to reduce further transmission, which helps keep other young people in school and not at home self-isolating.
Since 1 April, Oldham Council have commissioned BARDOC to provide outreach and training for rapid testing. Following successful testing efforts in workplaces, mosques, churches, leisure centres and more, BARDOC were asked on 17 June to reprioritise to respond to trends in rising cases, and commence testing in secondary schools.
To help support BARDOC in this effort, a MACA (Military Aid to the Civil Authorities) was requested by Oldham and then approved on 23 June.
BARDOC will lead the training for 15 military personnel who will support them in their work. BARDOC will retain overall responsibility for the delivery and not the military.
The first school scheduled for support took place on Friday (24 June), and it will continue across all eight schools until the end of term – the week commencing 19 July.
Military support has been approved before in Oldham, with personnel being drafted in between January and March 2021 to help with the delivery of large rapid testing sites across the borough.
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