Coronavirus Community Testing
It wasn't clear to me what the Community Test procedure was so having now visited and taken a test I am passing on my experience of the below.
There is no pre-booking. On arrival you will be given a registration card unique to you which carries a QR code which you need to scan with a smartphone to initiate the online registration process and a barcode which needs to be scanned as part of the process. If you don't have a smartphone or there is a problem with the process (as there was for me) there are receptionists who can register you.
Then it is a case of self-administering a standard swab test, the sample will be subjected to the rapid 'lateral flow' analysis procedure and a result, by SMS to your mobile, can be expected about 30 mins later.
Exit from the building (via a different route to that by which you entered) is a little convoluted.
[My test was negative by the way - thanks for asking.]
"Community Test sites - Testing for people without symptoms (lateral flow or asymptomatic tests)
A Community Test site is now open, offering COVID-19 tests to residents who don’t have symptoms (these are known as lateral flow tests).
As many as one in three people who have coronavirus have no symptoms and are spreading it without realising it, so the government is providing Community Test sites to tackle this.
The Community Test site is open to our frontline staff and residents to get tested, even if they don’t have any symptoms.
It is based at Gascoigne Children’s Centre, 140 St Ann’s, Barking IG11 7AD, and currently open 10am to 7pm everyday (although it will be closed on Christmas Day)."
There is no pre-booking. On arrival you will be given a registration card unique to you which carries a QR code which you need to scan with a smartphone to initiate the online registration process and a barcode which needs to be scanned as part of the process. If you don't have a smartphone or there is a problem with the process (as there was for me) there are receptionists who can register you.
Then it is a case of self-administering a standard swab test, the sample will be subjected to the rapid 'lateral flow' analysis procedure and a result, by SMS to your mobile, can be expected about 30 mins later.
Exit from the building (via a different route to that by which you entered) is a little convoluted.
[My test was negative by the way - thanks for asking.]
"Community Test sites - Testing for people without symptoms (lateral flow or asymptomatic tests)
A Community Test site is now open, offering COVID-19 tests to residents who don’t have symptoms (these are known as lateral flow tests).
As many as one in three people who have coronavirus have no symptoms and are spreading it without realising it, so the government is providing Community Test sites to tackle this.
The Community Test site is open to our frontline staff and residents to get tested, even if they don’t have any symptoms.
It is based at Gascoigne Children’s Centre, 140 St Ann’s, Barking IG11 7AD, and currently open 10am to 7pm everyday (although it will be closed on Christmas Day)."
