Coronavirus testing centre to be set-up at Olympia

By Owen Sheppard, Local Democracy Reporter

A coronavirus testing unit will be deployed in Kensington and Chelsea as the borough continues to see a rise in new cases.

Forty eight new cases were reported in the west London borough between September 7 and12 – an infection rate of 15.5 cases per 100,000 people.

Run by the NHS, the mobile testing unit will be located at the Olympia London’s Motorail car park in Olympia Way.

The test involves taking a swab of the inside of the nose and the back of the throat using a long cotton bud.

Kensington and Chelsea council said tests will be available on Sunday.

It will also be based there on September 23, 26 and 29, although the times of availability may differ.

Anyone wishing to receive a swab test at the centre should register in advance via the NHS’s website.

Public Health England data revealed that between September 4 and 10, 22 new cases were linked to residents living in different areas of Chelsea and West Brompton.

Data from NHS England shows that the number of people in Greater London checking for information about coronavirus symptoms has been rising rapidly.

In the week up to Sunday, people in London logged on to the online symptom checker or called NHS 111 or 999 with concerns about possible Covid-19 symptoms 14,849 times.

That was up from 6,288 checks carried out in the previous week.

Pictured top: Olympia