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Coronavirus: Government to pilot mass testing for high risk workers including taxi drivers and cleaners

Thousands of taxi drivers, cleaners and other high-risk workers are to be offered coronavirus tests, the government has said.

The news comes as the latest data on England’s test and trace service showed the service was still unable to contact almost a quarter of people who tested positive for the virus.

Data released on Thursday also shows more than 100,000 people are not receiving their test result within 24 hours, with the vast majority of these due to delays with home-testing kits.

Concerns around the number of people who may be infected with Covid-19 but be unaware, or asymptomatic, has prompted the pilot project to test thousands of workers in jobs where they are more at risk of coming into contact with people who may infected.

Under the plans staff working for businesses including taxi company Addison Lee, BT, Boots and Mitie, which employs large numbers of cleaners, will be given 10,000 tests each. Local councils in Bradford, Newham, Oldham and Brent will also be offered more tests for groups they designate as high-risk.

Any worker who does not have symptoms will have either a home test or use local walk-in testing sites.

Anyone who tests positive will have their details passed to the test and trace service to identify their contacts and to advise them to self-isolate.

Estimates suggest as many as 40 per cent of people can be infected with Covid-19 and not be aware. They can they spread the virus to others. This is one of the biggest concerns for health chiefs trying to prevent a second wave of infections.

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