The City Council's community testing programme operating at the Guildhall, initially for critical workers, is now available to all Portsmouth's workers who cannot work from home.
Cllr Matthew Winnington, Portsmouth City Council’s Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing and Social Care says: "Testing, tracing and isolating limits transmission of COVID-19 and is vital in our fight to reduce infection rates and save lives. We know that one in three people who catch the virus don’t get symptoms, and so now we strongly encourage all workers who can’t work from home to book twice a week for free no-symptom tests. It's one of the most important contributions both employers and employees you can make right now keep our entire community safer.
"Tests take about 10 minutes, there is no need to wait for results on site as you are contacted as soon as the results are confirmed. Appointments can be booked online at short notice and are available 7 days a week, between 8am and 8pm – which makes getting rapid turnaround testing really accessible.
"Getting tested is voluntary, but I strongly urge all employers to support their eligible staff to take up this offer of free community testing. If they employ more than 50 people, businesses can register to set up their own workplace testing programme – while these are being set up, all those who can’t work from home are welcome to use the Council's Guildhall test site."
Asymptomatic testing finds people who have coronavirus without symptoms and works hand in hand with the existing free testing service for those with symptoms.
Anyone with one or more coronavirus symptoms – a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or a loss or change to sense of smell or taste – should book a test at nhs.uk/coronavirus or by calling 119. There are two symptomatic testing sites in Portsmouth which are open seven days a week at Eldon car park (University of Portsmouth), and at Northarbour Road.
