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Calvin Robinson

Local Democracy Reporter

Calvin Robinson worked as a Local democracy reporter covering Greater Lincolnshire for Stonebow Media.


Testing at Lincolnshire Showground is set to be ramped up to around 1,000 per day capacity by the end of the week.

Public health bosses in the county said they were confident that the facility would be able to carry out the target number of tests as the site was “working well”.

It was announced last week that the Showground site, which is run by Boots and Serco, would replace three sites in Lincoln and Boston.

Tests are still appointment only and targeted at key workers and frontline NHS staff.

Professor Derek Ward, director of public health at Lincolnshire County Council, said the site had 400 tests planned for today (April 28).

Photo: Steve Smailes

The site was opened on Sunday and carried out 155 tests in its first day.

Professor Ward said he was confident of getting the facility up to capacity by the end of the week.

“From all of the indications we are getting, it [the site] seems to be working quite well,” he said.

Officials have started to open up mobile testing sites with the first at Princess Anne Sports Centre in Boston and another expected to start up in Skegness.

It comes as part of government plan to ramp up testing for thousands of key workers across the country.

Local health bosses have set a target for 1,000 tests per day across the county.

Officials said that testing was also been ramped up in care homes where both staff and residents can now be tested.

Along with testing, the county will need an increase in tracing teams to confirm positive cases.

Among those to be part of the tracing teams will be civil servants and council staff, such as environmental health officers.

Up to 150 tracers will need to be trained in Lincolnshire in order to track down individual cases.

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Lincolnshire remembers loved ones lost to coronavirus

April 28, 2020 10.45 am This story is over 48 months old

More cases of coronavirus are expected to be confirmed in Lincolnshire’s care homes as 44 facilities are now in isolation.

Professor Derek Ward, director of public health at Lincolnshire County Council, said up to 20 cases have tested positive so far.

The authority monitors 270 care homes across the county and those affected by the virus have implemented infection control measures.

Professor Ward confirmed that 44 homes have been put in isolation since the start of the pandemic due to suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases.

He said officials expect to fine more as testing is ramped up at care homes.

“We will see more cases in care homes partly because we are testing everybody,” said Professor Ward.

“We have been working closely with our care homes to help them with infection control.”

It comes as mobile testing teams have been carrying out swab tests on both residents and staff at care homes.

Last week, public health officials confirmed that 19 facilities had been placed in protective isolation.

It means residents who tested positive have been isolated away from others, care workers looking after them have increased their personal protective equipment (PPE) and visitors are restricted from coming to the homes.

Tony McGinty, assistant director of public health at the county council, said homes had handled the outbreak well.

Meanwhile, recent figures from the Office of National Statistics showed that more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths were confirmed in care homes nationally from April 10 to April 25

The data showed that the Care Quality Commission was notified of 4,343 deaths in that period.

The Department of Health confirmed 157,149 people have tested positive for coronavirus and the UK death toll increased to 21,092.

Follow the latest coronavirus lockdown updates here

Lincolnshire remembers loved ones lost to coronavirus

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