LOCAL people can now collect free rapid lateral flow (RLF) testing kits from Active Tameside’s leisure centres across the borough.
The RLF 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. It 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 8 of Tameside’s local libraries.
Research shows rapid tests are 99.9% accurate. This means the chance of getting a false-positive result, where the result shows as positive but is actually negative, is extremely low.
About 1 in 3 people with COVID-19 do not have symptoms but can still infect others. People should do a rapid test twice a week – every 3 to 4 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 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test at: https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test
More information on rapid lateral flow testing can be found at: https://www.tameside.gov.uk/rapidtesting