Northumbrian Water has launched a rapid Covid-19 testing programme for frontline workers, which will form part of next step in mass testing.
The company is the first in the water sector to introduce voluntary testing for staff to ensure essential water and wastewater services continue to be delivered.
Northumbrian worked closely with NHS Test and Trace, Defra and Water UK to introduce the scheme that enables frontline workers and staff with direct customer contact to be tested once or twice a week.
Dido Harding, interim executive chair of the National Institute for Health Protection, said the programme is providing insights to the benefits of novel testing technology.
“This pilot is one of many which will lay the foundations for the next phase of NHS Test and Trace – mass testing – which will allow us to test even more people, even more quickly,” Harding said.
The asymptomatic testing scheme is designed to find and better understand positive cases and identify people who have the virus to ensure they isolate to limit transmission.
The pilot was introduced at a site in Northumberland in January, followed by locations in Durham, North Tyneside, Stockton-on-Tees and Essex and Suffolk across the company’s region.
Richard Warneford, wastewater director at Northumbrian, said: “Our priorities have always been to ensure that our customers have a reliable and high-quality supply of water to their homes, that wastewater is safely removed and treated and, most importantly, that our people stay safe whilst delivering these important services.
“We’ve worked incredibly hard throughout this pandemic to ensure this has been the case and I am immensely proud of our people and the job they’ve done over the last 10 months.
Warneford described the programmes an added layer of safety and security for protecting staff and ensuring resilience of service for customers.