As Newark and Sherwood continues on the road to lifting lockdown, we are encouraging residents to make regular home testing for COVID-19 part of their weekly routine.

We have already seen encouraging numbers of home test kits being collected and used by residents. Kits can be collected from several local pharmacies across the district as well as our asymptomatic test sites.

As part of this shift, and to allow the Sports and Fitness centre to re-open fully in May we will be closing this asymptomatic testing site and replacing it with a mobile test site. The new mobile site will come to Newark between 10am and 4:30pm every Wednesday and Saturday. The exact location is to be confirmed, but we are currently looking at different possible locations in the town centre. Anyone can get a supervised test here, and can collect a home test kit as well.

“The mobile test site option has proved really effective in Ollerton and has now been introduced to Southwell every Monday and Thursday. It makes sense to replicate this cost-effective solution in Newark now that the Sports and Fitness centre is preparing to re-open.” Explains David Lloyd, leader of Newark and Sherwood District Council.

“The mobile solution is particularly suited to Newark and will give our residents a convenient way to either get a supervised test or to collect their kits for home testing.”

Regular twice weekly testing is a cornerstone of the Government roadmap out of Lockdown.

“Twice weekly testing is really important, when you have no symptoms, it’s an additional thing we can do to keep ourselves, our families and communities safer. There are now over 100 different places to pick up free home testing kits across Nottinghamshire including pharmacies and testing sites,” adds Jonathan Gribbin, Director of Public Health for Nottinghamshire.

To find out more about the ways to make COVID-19 testing part of your regular weekly routine, visit www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk/covidtests