Staff at Sheffield Covid-19 test centre report decline in use – as council opens another

Sheffield Covid-19 test centre staff have reported a decline in the number of people using the city’s pedestrian sites, expressing ‘confusion’ over the council’s decision to open a new one when ‘hardly anybody’ uses those already in place.
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This comes as the infection rate and weekly number of new cases in Sheffield stands at a figure considerably higher than it was in August and September, when the staff reported a higher number of people coming to the centres for tests.

Sheffield Director of Public Health Greg Fell has stressed the importance of getting tested in tracing the virus and limiting its spread, and has said that the number of people getting tested remains ‘stable’.

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One person who works at the test centre at Alderson Road Car Park in Sharrow said: “Yesterday (November 3) we had 87 people come in for tests in 12 hours.

Alderson Road Walk-in COVID 19 test centre in SheffieldAlderson Road Walk-in COVID 19 test centre in Sheffield
Alderson Road Walk-in COVID 19 test centre in Sheffield

"That is what has been the normal amount this week. In August it was at full capacity with 250 a day. Then the capacity was lowered so we were only allowed to do 140 a day, which we were still doing.

"But recently in the last couple of weeks there has not been more than 100 on most days. It is very rare that we reach 100.”

In spite of the claims that the test centres in Sheffield are getting quieter, the number of new positive cases reported each week has risen significantly in October.

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In the seven days up to October 28 – the latest statistics available – there were 2,401 new cases reported in Sheffield, meaning the infection rate was 408.6 per 100,000 of the population.

This fell from 2,743 new cases reported in the seven days to October 21, when the infection rate was 459.3.

The current infection rate is still significantly higher than it was in August, when the test centre employee said the pedestrian sites were much busier.

In August, the peak for Sheffield was when 134 new cases were reported in the week up to the 11.

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The fact that the infection rate is higher and more positive tests are being reported, but test numbers at pedestrian sites are falling, could be because more people are getting tested at home, in hospitals and care homes, or at the drive-through sites.

It could also show that, although fewer tests are being taken, a higher proportion are coming back positive. The positivity rate at the moment is around 21 per cent. In summer it was around two per cent.

"The people who work at the test centres are surprised. It seems weird that we have not had many people coming in for tests with the infection rate so high,” the Sharrow test centre employee said.

"Everybody is coming up with their own reasons, like maybe people are just staying at home now. But nobody really knows why, everybody just has their own ideas.

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"The people who come into the centre are always surprised about how quiet it is as well. We get a lot of comments asking if we have been busy and saying that they are surprised they don’t have to queue.

"People say they read online and in the news that it is really busy and people are queuing up but when they get here it is really quiet.

“It is the same at other test centres as well. Sheffield Central – the one in Sharrow – is one of the smallest centres but yesterday our manager was going over the numbers for the other ones and our 87 was the most out of all the pedestrian sites.

"At Sheffield Central we have five bays. In Darnall there are ten bays and they did fewer tests than us. It is always really quiet there.

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"There are also some where a van drives up and sets up a tent. Yesterday the one on Milton Street closed. 20 of the people that came to us came from there. So if that one had not closed we would have only done about 67 yesterday.

"The only place that is busy is the regional drive through one at Meadowhall. It is always busy there.”

In spite of the apparent decline in use of the pedestrian test centres, another one opened in Sheffield yesterday (November 3).

Greg Fell, Director of Public Health said that the extra test centre would more enable people to get tested close to home, and also ensure there was capacity should the number of people needing tests spike.

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He said: “Testing numbers across all of our local centres remain stable. We have seen a slight increase in the numbers of people getting tested at Meadowhall and using home testing kits, and a small decrease in the numbers of people being tested at the other local test sites.

“We now have six testing sites in Sheffield, four Local Testing Sites at Sharrow, Burngreave, Darnall and Upperthorpe, the Mobile Testing Unit which is currently in Milton Road car park, and the Regional Testing Site at Meadowhall.

"The local test sites have made it easy for people to get a test close to where they live, by being situated in the heart of local communities as well as increasing the resilience in the testing network as a whole so that if infection rates do suddenly rise we have the capacity to cope.”

The new pedestrian test centre is in the Shipton Street car park, behind the Zest Centre in Upperthorpe. It is the sixth test centre to open in the Sheffield area.

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The test centre employee said: "The council are building another pedestrian test centre on Shipton Street, which is really confusing to me. Why would you build more when hardly anybody comes to the ones already here anymore?”