Local people can now collect free rapid lateral flow testing kits from Active Tameside's leisure centres across the borough.

The testing kits are used to detect and fight Covid-19 for people without symptoms. 

The tests give a quick result, using a device similar to a pregnancy test, which involves rubbing a long cotton bud swab, over a person’s tonsils, or where they would have been, and inside their nose.

Tameside Council is urging people without symptoms to get tested twice weekly using the testing kits that are already available to order online, or can be collected from a local pharmacy or from eight of Tameside’s local libraries.

Research shows rapid tests are 99.9 per cent accurate, meaning the chance of getting a false-positive result, where the result shows as positive but is actually negative, is extremely low.

Around one in three people with Covid-19 do not have symptoms but can still infect others. People should do a rapid test twice a week – every three to four days, to check if they have the virus. Results should be reported on the government website at https://www.gov.uk/report-covid19-result or by calling 119.

If people test positive, they should self-isolate as it stops the virus spreading, and immediately book a confirmatory PCR test at https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test

Councillor Eleanor Wills, Executive Member for Adult Social Care and Population Health, said: “This is great news for Tameside residents. Even if you have been vaccinated, there is still a chance you could pass COVID-19 on, so you must keep getting tested regularly.

“Making these kits available for collection at Active Tameside sites will hopefully encourage more people to get tested regularly. 

“COVID-19 hasn’t gone away and we have to learn to live with the virus, so by doing regular testing you will get to know if you have the virus without showing any symptoms. This will help to protect your family, friends and work colleagues, especially those who have not yet been vaccinated from this dreadful virus.”

More information on rapid lateral flow testing can be found at https://www.tameside.gov.uk/rapidtesting

Read more from the Tameside Reporter

Click here for more of the latest news

Click here to read the latest edition of the paper online

Click here to find out where you can pick up a copy of the paper