COVID-19: Britain to test all 5 lakh residents of Liverpool

A man sits alone on a chair outside a restaurant in the island of Astypalea, Greece on Monday. Greece's government is imposing a localised lockdown on its second largest city of Thessaloniki. Pic/AP

The British government plans to trial a new citywide coronavirus testing program in Liverpool, offering regular testing to everyone who lives and works in the city of 5,00,000 in an effort to slow the spread of the virus. Testing will take place throughout the city using a variety of technologies, including new methods that can provide results in an hour or less.

The Department of Health says, "these more advanced tests will help identify infectious individuals who are not displaying symptoms … so they can self-isolate and prevent the virus from spreading."

Boris Johnson

A test and trial

The Liverpool trial is seen as a test of how Britain might be able to roll out mass testing across the country, which is battling a surge in coronavirus infections. England is scheduled to begin a second national lockdown on Thursday. Liverpool has one of the highest infection rates in England, with over 410 cases per 1,00,000 people.

Meanwhile, new virus curbs took effect on Tuesday in Austria and Greece, while Germany announced plans to expand testing for the virus as European nations battled rapidly increasing infections and hospitalizations that strained their health care systems. The moves followed a partial shutdown that Germany began on Monday and tighter rules in Italy, Kosovo and Croatia.

Germany's antigen tests

Germany said it is bulk-buying millions of antigen tests, which produce rapid results, to avoid banning visitors to nursing homes and preventing the anguish to residents and their relatives that such isolation had caused in the spring. Nursing homes will receive up to 20 free monthly tests per resident, which can be used to test patients, staff and visiting relatives who might be unwitting carriers of COVID-19. The antigen tests look for specific protein on the virus, but experts had said in the spring that they were less accurate than the standard PCR test.

Cases spike in Russia

Infections have spiked in Russia, where authorities on Tuesday reported 18,648 new infections, bringing their total to over 18,000 daily cases for the fifth straight day, much higher than the record of over 11,000 daily infections in the spring. Russia has the world's fourth-highest caseload of over 1.6 million and has reported over 28,000 deaths.

Lockdown in Greece city

Greece imposed a lockdown on its second largest city, Thessaloniki, and its neighbourig northern province of Serres from Tuesday morning. Residents can only leave their homes for specific reasons and after notifying authorities by text. New restrictions also came into effect in Austria. Non-essential stores will remain open, but residents are asked to stay home between 8 pm and 6 am.

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