Sunderland mass testing plans under way amid hopes scheme could help area out of tier 3

The council have said that they are ‘working with partners’ across the region to roll out mass Covid-19 testing.

Full details of the plans are not known at this time however if successful, it could see Sunderland downgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 2.

Gerry Taylor, Sunderland’s Executive Director of Public Health and Integrated Commissioning has told the Echo that the council are hoping to announce further details within the coming weeks.

Mr Taylor said: “We are working with partners locally and across the region to develop plans for the roll out of targeted community testing.

“We are hoping to be in a position to announce more details in the next few weeks.”

It is hoped that mass testing could help areas in tier 3 move to tier two as one of the key criteria the government is looking at is the ratio of positive tests to overall tests.

Earlier today (Friday, November 27) Boris Johnson confirmed that more mass testing is in the pipeline following a successful trial in Liverpool.

The Prime Minister said: “We’ve got tens of, perhaps hundreds of, millions of lateral flow tests coming into this country. We already have a huge stockpile.

“The difficulty is not the supply at the moment, the difficulty is actually working with local government, local communities to get them doing it.

“The issue is going to be getting everybody mobilised, to understand the potential advantages of mass community testing.”

Mass testing in Liverpool saw around 2,000 members of the armed forces drafted in to help with the scheme.

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