New walk-through testing site now open in Sunderland after city placed in Tier 2 - here's what you need to know about booking an appointment

Demonstrating how to use the self-test kit at a new walk-through Covid test centre. Photo: Jane Barlow/PA Wire.

The site in Commercial Road, Hendon, opened today and testing is available only for those with coronavirus symptoms – a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste.

Anyone with one or more of these symptoms should book a test at nhs.uk/coronavirus or by calling 119.

The site is part of the largest network of diagnostic testing facilities created in British history, which now includes more than 500 sites available across the UK, including 77 drive-through sites, 172 walk-through sites, 258 mobile units, home testing and satellite kits and five mega laboratories.

Health Minister Lord Bethell said: “We continue to expand testing to make sure that everyone with symptoms can get a test, with our new walk-in sites making it even easier no matter where you live."

He said the new site ‘forms part of our national testing network, which has the capacity to test more than a million people a week and is growing all the time.’

The testing centre is operated in partnership with Sodexo and offers self-administered tests.

Baroness Dido Harding, Interim Executive Chair of the National Institute for Health Protection, said: "This new site is part of our ongoing work to expand testing across the UK to deliver 500,000 tests a day by the end of October.

“Please book a test if you have coronavirus symptoms: a new continuous cough, a high temperature and a loss or change in sense of smell or taste.”

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