We use cookies to collect information about how you use wiltshire.gov.uk. We use this information to make the website work as well as possible and improve our services.
We have started to locally roll out the government's rapid COVID-19 community testing initiative to help drive down transmission rates.
Our programme, in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care, is specifically aimed at asymptomatic people:
who work at small businesses (50 employees or less) who cannot work from home
who work private early years settings
who are childminders
Eligible people will take a Lateral Flow Test.
With its targeted approach, community testing aims to reduce the prevalence of the virus. Around one in three people who have coronavirus do not display any symptoms so it's important that eligible people get tested if they can.
This is not to be confused with surge testing. Surge testing is increased testing (including door-to-door testing) and enhanced contact tracing in specific locations in England and is not currently taking place in Wiltshire
Where are the test centres?
We have test centres up and running in Devizes (Leisure Centre), Salisbury (Five Rivers Health and Wellbeing Centre), and Chippenhan (Monkton Park).
One other centre will open in Trowbridge (County Hall) in due course. For the timebeing, you can only book an appointment at our Devizes, Salisbury and Chippenham centres via our online booking system (link can be found below).
The centres cannot accept people dropping in, and everyone must book an appointment and not have any symptoms of COVID-19.
You must wear a face covering when you visit a symptom-free testing site. You should only remove your face covering when you are doing your swab.
The test results
The self-administered test should take no more than 15 minutes and results should be known within half an hour.
Even if you receive a negative test, please continue to follow all COVID measures - wash hands regularly, socially distance from other people, and wear a face covering where appropriate.
If you test positive, you and anyone you live with must self-isolate immediately for ten days.
You may be contacted by the NHS or Public Health and asked for information to help the NHS alert your close contacts.
If you test positive you do not need to take an NHS Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test (the test for people with coronavirus symptoms) to confirm your result.
Have symptoms?
Free testing continues to be available to everyone in Wiltshire who has COVID-19 symptoms - high temperature, continuous cough or loss of/change in taste or smell. People should visit NHS Coronavirus or call 119 to book a test in that instance.
Those in smaller businesses (employees of 50 or less) who cannot work from home, and private (non-maintained) early years settings have been chosen because they are not currently involved in any other mass-testing scheme.
Anyone who receives a positive Lateral Flow Test result automatically activate legal obligations to self-isolate, and may also claim for a Test and Trace payment if they are eligible.
Book a test
If you are in one of the targeted groups you can book a test below (please note, at this stage you can only book an appointment at the Devizes and Salisbury sites). If you have any COVID symptoms, please do not a book a test as part of this programme. In this instance, please visit NHS Coronavirus or call 119 to book a test.
It is now underway with centres in Devizes, Salisbury and Chippenham. Another centre will open in Trowbridge soon.
This depends on demand. The service will be regularly reviewed in line with local case rates and demand. We will publicise when it's due to come to an end.
Our community testing programme is aimed at smaller businesses (50 employees or less) where staff are unable to work from home.
It's also for early years staff based at private (non-maintained) settings and childminders.
The Department for Health recently published information about a new drive to increase workplace testing in sectors open during lockdown, in order to detect COVID-19 in people who are not showing symptoms.
Businesses can register to order Coronavirus (COVID-19) rapid lateral flow tests for employees if:
The business is registered in England.
The business employs 50 people or more.
Employees cannot work from home.
This service is not intended for use by employees who have symptoms. Anyone with symptoms should order an individual test and stay at home.
Businesses should register interest to participate in the scheme online.
No, our community testing programme is for asymptomatic people.
Free testing continues to be available to everyone in Wiltshire. Please book a test if you have symptoms of Coronavirus - high temperature, continuous cough or loss of / change in taste or smell - at NHS Coronavirus or by calling 119.
Devizes Leisure Centre
Salisbury - Five Rivers Health and Wellbeing Centre
Chippenham - Monkton Park
A Trowbridge centre will be confirmed shortly.
No, surge testing is increased testing (including door-to-door testing) and enhanced contact tracing in specific locations in England. Surge testing is not currently taking place in Wiltshire.
No, you can attend any test centre, provided you have booked and eligible. We recommend you travel to the site nearest to where you live or work (whichever is more convenient)
It's recommended to try and get tested once a week if possible.
Please avoid eating or drinking for at least 30 minutes before taking the test to reduce the risk of spoiling the test.
Given your line of work and the need to have the correct amount of staff to maintain ratios at your setting, we're very aware that logistically it might be difficult for you to release staff to attend one of our sites.
We completely sympathise with this, but at the moment this is the only way we are able to provide this testing service. We are speaking representatives at national Government to see if more can be done. Should the Government introduce another way to support you, then we will of course let you know.
Lateral flow antigen tests are a new kind of technology that can be used to test a higher proportion of asymptomatic people, better enabling us to identify and isolate more people who are at high likelihood of spreading virus, and break the chains of transmission.
A Lateral Flow Test (LFT) detects the presence or absence of coronavirus from a swab or saliva sample.
The sample is mixed with a buffer solution, which releases and breaks up virus fragments. Some of the solution is then dropped on to the lateral flow device. The sample runs along the surface of the devices' absorbent strip, showing at the end a visual positive or negative result dependent on the presence of the virus.
Greater testing turnout will increase the likelihood that Community Testing will reduce the prevalence of the disease and help protect communities as much as possible.
We aim to identify people who do not have Covid-19 symptoms but who are infectious and could spread the infection to others unknowingly. Identifying and supporting infectious people to isolate before they develop symptoms will help reduce spread.
No, it's entirely voluntary
No.
You must wear a face covering when you visit a symptom-free testing site. You should only remove your face covering when you are doing your swab.
You will be asked to take a test using a Lateral Flow Device to check if you are currently infectious with COVID-19.
You will be asked to do a throat and nose swab.
You will need to complete the swabbing yourself, supervised by a trained staff member who can assist if needed.
Full instructions will be provided to you upon your visit along with the test kit.
You will be asked to give consent to take the test and share personal information with us and register your details, so we can record and tell you your result.
You will then be asked to register for your test online with help from a staff member if needed
This is how NHS Test & Trace can link you to your test sample and collect contact details to send you your result.
Once you have handed over the swab, you will be asked to leave the test site and you can carry on your day.
Your result will be available within 30 mins of taking the test. They are point of care tests, so don't need to go to a lab to be processed. Your result will be sent to you via SMS and/or e-mail. Results will be communicated at the latest within a day of the test.
You are legally obliged to self-isolate following a positive LFT result.
The NHS digital team are working on a set of solutions to synchronise with the existing results notification system.
Antigen lateral flow tests are highly specific, which means that only a small proportion of people who do not have coronavirus will receive a positive result.
Extensive clinical evaluation from Public Health England and the University of Oxford shows that lateral flow tests are appropriate for large-scale population testing, including for asymptomatic people.
Lateral flow tests are validated technology, it is safe, inexpensive and the results are trusted.
Extensive clinical evaluation from Public Health England and the University of Oxford show Lateral Flow Tests
LFTs are specific and sensitive enough to be deployed for mass testing, including for asymptomatic people.
If you get a positive result, it is likely that you were infectious at the time the test was taken.
The antigen test cannot detect very low levels of coronavirus in a sample, so if you have only recently been infected, are in the incubation period, or if you have mostly recovered, the test may not give a positive result. Therefore, if you receive a negative test you cannot guarantee you haven't had or will get COVID-19.
It takes less than 15 minutes to administer the test.
The test produces a result within half an hour
Lateral flow devices do not require a laboratory to process the test. Swabbing and processing of these tests must currently be conducted at a dedicated testing site by trained personnel.
The UK Government has been purchasing kits. The current position is that these will not be available to purchase on the market.
The cost per kit is not disclosed due to commercial confidentiality and sensitivities.
From 27 January 2021, LFT positive results now legally confirm diagnosis of COVID-19 and activate legal obligations to self-isolate and the ability to claim the Test & Trace Support Payment for those not self-reporting.
Before this date, a confirmatory PCR test was required.
NHS Test and Trace is working with government departments, institutions and employers across both public and private sectors to support delivery of asymptomatic testing to large organisations, including those providing critical services.
You must continue to follow the preventative measures currently recommended for stopping the spread of the virus.
To protect yourself and others, you must remember: Hands. Face. Space.∙ Hands - wash your hands for 20 seconds with soap and water often, and as soon as you get home - use hand sanitiser gel if soap and water are not available. ∙ Face - wear a face covering in indoor settings where social distancing may be difficult, and where you will come into contact with people you do not normally meet. ∙ Space - stay at least 2 metres away from anyone you do not live with, or who is not in your support bubble.
With higher incidence of COVID-19 in the general population, expert public health advice is that there is limited value in a confirmatory PCR test. Regular staff testing, with self-isolation for those who test positive, helps to protect other staff from getting the virus and helps to reduce overall absences from work.
Wiltshire Council
Childminder information pack [343.04KB]