You are invited to put your name forward to join a team which is rolling out a city-wide Covid-19 testing programme.

Testing is key to tracking and controlling the spread of coronavirus, and the number of tests being carried out in Wolverhampton each week now is around 2,500, triple the number it was three weeks ago.

But the council and health partners want to go even further, increasing testing across local communities, businesses and even across the council, and being in a position to carry out 'hyperlocal' testing and following up cases in areas of particular concern as required.

To make this happen, colleagues are being invited to take on one of a number of temporary roles.

These include working at pop-up testing sites (including registering individuals upon arrival, overseeing – but not administering – the swabbing process, and collecting people's details for Test and Trace purposes), joining a team of call handlers to support people when they are booking tests, and delivering swabbing kits to test centres and other locations. For full details of any of the roles, please email publichealth@wolverhampton.gov.uk.

Anyone who is interested in joining the team on a temporary basis should speak to their Head of Service in the first instance and, if in agreement, should then contact the HR Service Desk via hr.supportdesk@wolverhampton.gov.uk for more details.

Supporting the city’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic is a priority for the council and Heads of Service are being encouraged to release staff to these roles where possible. If this causes a resource issue, they are asked to discuss service priorities with directors.

As colleagues will no doubt be aware, the coronavirus infection rate fluctuates from week to week. We need to do all we can to keep this in check to protect our residents and their families from Covid-19 and to avoid a local lockdown.

We're now carrying out around 2,500 tests per week; this is great news but we have the testing capacity to go even further and that's why we need people to help us do this over the coming weeks and months.

If you are interested in being part of the team which will deliver these functions, please speak to your manager; this is a great chance for you to play a key role in our city's fight against Covid-19 and help us get back to normal as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, staff are reminded that they must self-isolate and immediately book a test if they show symptoms of Covid-19 – such as a fever, a new continuous cough or a loss or change to their sense of taste or smell.

To book a test, please visit www.gov.uk/coronavirus or call 119. The test is free, takes less than a minute and results are delivered the following day. Anyone who tests positive for Covid-19 will be contacted by NHS Test and Trace and will be asked to share information about people that have been close contacts recently.