A new report into the city’s project, which saw residents offered regular lateral flow tests regardless of whether they had symptoms, found the scheme not only reduced the numbers of those developing severe cases of Covid-19, but also reduced time spent in unnecessary self-isolation.
A mass testing programme in the Liverpool region led to a 32 per cent reduction in hospitalisations from coronavirus, a study suggests.
Key workers who were identified as a close contact of someone else who had tested positive could take part in a “test-to-release” scheme, where they could go back to work rather than self-isolating as long as they recorded a daily negative lateral flow test.
This saved 8,292 key worker workdays, the report – by a team of researchers from the University of Liverpool – found.
Thirty-four cases of Covid were identified during the test-to-release part of the scheme, and only three of these were missed by the daily lateral flow tests.
“This time last year, as the Alpha variant was surging, we found that Liverpool City Region’s early roll-out of community rapid testing was associated with a 32 per cent fall in Covid-19 hospital admissions after careful matching to other parts of the country in a similar position to Liverpool but without rapid testing,” explained Iain Buchan, dean of the Institute for Population Health at the University of Liverpool, who led the research.
“We also found that daily lateral flow testing as an alternative to quarantine for people who had been in close contact with a known infected person enabled emergency services to keep key teams such as fire crews in work, underpinning public safety.
“As the more infectious Omicron variant sweeps through communities this winter, access to rapid testing will be important for keeping key emergency, social care and NHS services afloat with test-to-release or daily contact testing schemes.”
The mass testing of asymptomatic people began in Liverpool city itself in November, as a pilot collaboration between the government, the NHS, the local authority and the military, which provided logistics and manpower.
However, once it ended in December the council decided to expand it to the entire Liverpool City Region (LCR).
This scheme, now known as Covid-SMART (Systematic, Meaningful, Asymptomatic and Agile Repeated Testing), saw 668,243 LCR residents aged five or older (45 per cent of the total population) take a lateral flow test either at home or at a dedicated testing centre.
In total, more than 27,000 people who did not have Covid symptoms tested positive thanks to the rapid tests and could then self-isolate rather than continuing to go about their day, potentially spreading their infection to others.
This effect of catching asymptomatic cases and preventing their onward spread eventually meant the LCR saw 32 per cent fewer people hospitalised with severe Covid compared to other regions.
This effect disappeared once mass asymptomatic testing was made available across the country earlier this year, the researchers said.
However, even after mass testing became more available elsewhere the LCR continued to find more additional cases of coronavirus when compared with other areas.
This meant in total Liverpool’s authorities detected an additional 17,000 infections from December 2020 to March 2021.
Professor Buchan said everyone needed to grasp how to use a lateral flow test and when to take one, to ensure they played their part in stopping the spread of Covid.
“You can become infectious very quickly so taking a test the day before you mix with other people is not as useful as taking the test just before you meet up,” he said.
“And the more you encourage those you mix with to ‘test before you go’ the more risk you will take out – this kind of crowd-sourced health security is the new normal.”
