Health bosses are asking people in a Scottish town to get tested for coronavirus in a targeted effort to suppress transmission - regardless of whether they are currently experiencing symptoms.
NHS Lanarkshire has called on everyone living in East Kilbride to get a test, with a mobile testing unit made available at the Holiday Inn car park, Stewartfield Way.
Dr Jackie Hyland, NHS Lanarkshire Consultant in Health Protection, said that people should be mindful of the presence of asymptomatic cases.
She said: “Covid-19 can be spread by people who don’t have symptoms or the symptoms are so mild people may not recognise that they have the infection.
“For the benefit of yourself and your community, I would encourage as many people as possible to get a test. The test results will help to detect the virus and limit its spread.”
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The community testing initiative aims to drive down local Covid-19 rates and transmission by identifying positive cases more quickly, as people can spread the virus to others before symptoms appear.
All residents are encouraged to get tested, whether they have any of the three COVID symptoms (a new continuous cough, temperature, loss or change in sense of taste or smell) or not.
Public Health Minister Mairi Gougeon said: “Targeted testing in this way will help us find and isolate more cases, by targeting resources with communities where there is high prevalence, helping us to identify more cases of the virus and giving us all a better chance of stopping it from spreading.
“However, a test only tells us if we are positive at the point in time that we are being tested. It does not mean that we can stop following all of the rules and guidelines which are in place to protect all of us.
It comes shortly after the news that a single jab of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine can reduce by four-fold the number of asymptomatic coronavirus infections.
The new data, from Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, suggests the “dramatic reduction” in positive tests among asymptomatic healthcare workers who had received one dose of the vaccine can make “hospitals even safer places to be”.
The study, which is awaiting peer review, analysed results from thousands of Covid-19 tests carried out weekly on hospital staff displaying no coronavirus symptoms.
It was led by a team at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) and the University of Cambridge.
A University of Cambridge statement said: “During a two-week period between January 18 and 31 2021, the team screened similar numbers of vaccinated and unvaccinated staff using around 4,400 PCR tests per week.
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“The results were then separated out to identify unvaccinated staff, and staff who had been vaccinated more than 12 days prior to testing (when protection against symptomatic infection is thought to occur).”
Results showed that 26 out of 3,252 (0.80%) tests from unvaccinated healthcare workers were positive.
This compared to 13 out of 3,535 (0.37%) tests from healthcare workers who had their vaccines less than 12 days beforehand and four out of 1,989 (0.20%) tests from staff at 12 days or more post-vaccination, the university said.
A statement added: “This suggests a four-fold decrease in the risk of asymptomatic Covid-19 infection amongst healthcare workers who have been vaccinated for more than 12 days and 75% protection.
“The level of asymptomatic infection was also halved in those vaccinated for less than 12 days.”
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