We’re asking staff to get a free rapid covid-19 test to help us pilot new community testing

The Public Health team and other colleagues have been working flat-out in the build up to Christmas to launch a new community testing programme that will offer rapid Covid-19 ‘Lateral Flow’ tests to people who do not have Covid-19 symptoms. The programme will launch on December 29 with one test site in Lambeth Town Hall, initially open to council and agency staff who we are calling on to get tested to help us to get the system up and running before we invite the general public to take part.

Why testing is important

1 in 3 people with Covid-19 display little or no symptoms, so it’s really important that we expand testing so that more people with the virus can self-isolate and stop spreading it to others.

The tests, which return a result in as little as 30 minutes, will be offered on a regular basis to residents, staff and people who work in Lambeth.

Help us to make the new testing a success

This is the first test centre that Lambeth Council will set up and run ourselves in the borough (the existing test centres for people with symptoms are run by contractors on behalf of Test and Trace), so we want to run the testing site at the Town Hall for staff only for the first few days before we scale up to offer testing to residents.

The Town Hall Assembly Hall will be open for staff testing From 9am to 5pm on Tuesday 29 and 28, and 9am to 4pm on Thursday 31 December.

We are calling on any staff who can travel safely to the Town Hall, in line with Tier 4 restrictions, to book a test at a time that works for them.

Find out more and book a test via Lamnet.