Community testing for asymptomatic coronavirus to be rolled out across Rutland, Stamford, Bourne and Deepings areas this week

Coronavirus testing will be offered to more people without symptoms who cannot stay at home during the national lockdown.

According to the Government, around one in three people have Covid-19 but are asymptomatic.

As a result, rapid, regular testing for more key workers will be made available across the country from this week.

Local authorities, which employ large numbers of key workers, will be encouraged to target testing at people unable to work from home.

In addition to local authorities, regular workforce testing is being piloted in the food, manufacturing, energy and retail sectors.

Tests are already being carried out in the military, and in secondary schools such as Stamford Welland Academy, which is open to the children of key workers. Primary schools will soon receive tests, but these will only be used for the weekly testing of staff, rather than both pupils and staff.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “With roughly a third of people who have coronavirus not showing symptoms, targeted asymptomatic testing and subsequent isolation is highly effective in breaking chains of transmission.

"Rapid, regular testing is led by local authorities who design programmes based on their in-depth knowledge of the local populations, so testing can have the greatest impact.

“We are now expanding this offer to every local authority across the country, and asking testing to be targeted on workers who cannot work from home during this national lockdown, while asking employers to work with us to scale up workforce testing."

The tests will be lateral flow tests, which provide a result within 30 minutes.

According to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), a pilot study of the lateral flow tests found they showed "48.9 per cent sensitivity", meaning more than half of those with the virus would be falsely reassured they were negative.

However, the Government's view is that targeted, regular community testing using lateral flow tests is "highly effective" and has already identified more than 14,800 positive Covid-19 cases which would not have been identified without targeted asymptomatic testing.