Coronavirus: Peterborough carers ‘sent to Stansted’ for Covid-19 tests as plans for city testing hub fall through

Labour MP for Leicester West Liz Kendall made the claim on Twitter on Wednesday, posting: “1 reason for gap between number of #COVID19 tests that could be done & those actually being done is so few testing sites. On Monday heard care workers being asked to go from Norfolk to Sheffield, from Peterborough to Stansted. Simply not poss for many, esp if don’t have car.”

The Peterborough Telegraph attempted to contact the MP for further information, and the Department of Health and Social Care for a response, but had not heard back at the time of going to press.

However, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group said: “There are a number of testing centres in the East of England region including Stansted. There are other options for Covid-19 testing for keyworker staff in Cambridge and Peterborough that staff can access through their own organisations.”

The Government is aiming to be testing 100,000 people a day for coronavirus by the end of April. However, despite having the capacity to carry out around 40,000 tests a day only around half that amount was being carried out by Wednesday.

Ms Kendall’s tweet came a day after it was revealed by the Office for National Statistics that more than 1,000 deaths in care homes had been linked to Covid-19.

Last week, the Peterborough Telegraph reported that six people with coronavirus had died at the same city care home, while at least 44 patients with the virus have passed away at Peterborough City Hospital since March 24, according to the latest figures.

Meanwhile, plans for a Covid-19 testing hub in Peterborough have fallen through.

A planning application submitted by 12-14 Pharmacy Ltd for its premises in Vicarage Farm Road were for an “out of hours private medical clinic and testing for the NHS”.

But the company said it has had to row back on its testing plans, although it still hopes to receive approval from Peterborough City Council for the medical clinic.

A company spokesperson said: “We identified a local need for Covid testing early on in the pandemic. We were looking at PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing having sourced the approved Public Health England product, lab equipment and built a robust strategy to enable local testing.

“Unfortunately, due to changes in government guidance on such tests and what was deemed reliable, this has not progressed.”