Jason raised the issue of the availability of community COVID testing with the Health Secretary.
Jason McCartney MP
A local high school student tested positive for covid late last week, so when parents had children from that school displaying symptoms over the weekend, they quite rightly tried to book a test but none was available on the portal. On Sunday morning, I directed one set of parents to a local walk-in centre a 45-minute drive away.
The first centre had actually run out of tests, but after a drive to another walk-in centre, they eventually got one.
Secretary of State, please, please, please, before we talk about the moon, can we just focus on local community testing in Marsden, Meltham, Mount and other communities in my constituency?
Matt Hancock MP
We have put a huge amount of testing into Kirklees, and it is very important because of the levels of coronavirus there.
I am very glad that my hon. Friend’s constituents did manage to get a test, and I know that there is huge demand.
But I would also say that getting the new technologies on board is also a part of solving the problem that we have right now.
We absolutely have to push on existing capacity, but we have also got to make sure that we invest in that new technology to solve this problem once and for all.
