Richard Hurt, Fylde Council’s Health Protection Practitioner, and SMART tester Rachel Higginbotham were today photographed at the launch of the new Fylde Council mobile testing unit van. Its first location was in the car park at B&Q at Whitehills Retail Park, and it will be there every Tuesday from 9.30 am until 4 pm. The specially equipped van will be in future placed in strategic locations across our borough to carry out regular asymptomatic testing within the community. As with the other SMART testing centres, no appointment is necessary and the council is keen for people to attend weekly if possible.

Richard Hurt, Fylde Council’s Health Protection Practitioner, said: ‘As we progress along the national roadmap to unlocking it is really important that people test regularly to ensure they aren’t asymptomatically carrying the virus. We want to offer people as many opportunities as possible to be tested and this van is the latest in a long line of testing initiatives launched by Fylde Council.’

He continued, ‘There are plans in the pipeline to secure regular locations across the borough so that anyone who doesn’t have symptoms can attend for regular testing at a time and place convenient to them. This supports the national strategy where anyone can order lateral flow tests online or collect them from pharmacies and other locations.’

However, Richard stressed, ‘If people have symptoms, or are generally feeling unwell they must be tested at one of the five PCR testing sites in Fylde. The infection rate in Fylde is low and decreasing, so we must all play our part to ensure we keep our community safe by stopping the virus in its tracks. Regular testing means we can continue to get back to doing all the things we love.’