January 29, 2021 9.27 am This story is over 37 months old

Rapid COVID testing centre reopens at Lincoln City’s stadium

Lincoln and Boston test centres can stay open at least another month

The rapid coronavirus testing centre at Lincoln City’s LNER Stadium reopened on Friday morning and can remain operational until the end of February at the earliest, along with the other site in the city and two in Boston.

Community testing began at the stadium on January 11 for people with and without coronavirus symptoms, with 2,298 tests carried out. There were 42 positive results, which is a positivity rate of 1.83%.

It will once again be open daily between 8am and 8pm.

A rapid coronavirus test being carried out at Lincoln City’s LNER Stadium. | Photo: Stuart Wilde for COLC

The testing ran at that site until January 25 when it was relocated to St Swithin’s community centre on Croft Street.

This was so those who live in the Monks Road area of the city can attend on a walk-in basis until February 7. It is also open daily between 8am and 8pm, with both sites running in conjunction with one another.

It has been approved that the two Lincoln centres and both in Boston can remain open until at least the end of February at the earliest.

Lincolnshire County Council’s Director of Public Health Professor Derek Ward said: “We’d put in a bid to the Department of Health to actually open up and keep both open.

“Clearly as people are coming, and our rates are very very low, we’d have to make a decision whether it was worth keeping around [longer].”

The mass rapid testing site is located at St Swithin’s Community Centre on Croft Street. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Both Lincoln test centres and the two in Boston have so far carried out a combined total of 8,200 tests of asymptomatic people using a lateral flow test, as of Thursday evening.

Of these tests, 102 have produced positive results. This is a positivity rate of 1.25%.