A NEW mobile Covid-19 Community Testing Centre will be in Newton Abbot between 8.30am and 5.30pm every Friday until further notice.

The service will offer rapid tests for people without symptoms, with results available within the hour, from the Teignbridge Depot Car Park on the Brunel Industrial Estate.

And from Sunday, March 21, and every Sunday after that, the testing centre will also be available at the town’s Cattle Market.

The tests are for all people who can’t work from home and who are in contact with others, like carers and emergency workers, as well as parents of school aged children.

All these groups are encouraged to take these tests twice a week and can book to have a test from today by visiting devon.cc/testing

A mobile unit already stops in Honiton, Exmouth, Axminster, Okehampton, Tavistock and Ivybridge and there are also fixed sites at County Hall in Exeter, The Civic Centre in Barnstaple, and the Exe Valley Leisure Centre in Tiverton.

Both the mobile and fixed sites are part of Devon County Council’s Community Testing Programme, which offers rapid tests for those who may come into contact with others and do not have symptoms.

Not to be confused with the NHS test centres and the national testing programme, which provide tests for those with symptoms, community testing centres help identify those who maybe unwittingly carrying and spreading the virus.

One in three people with coronavirus do not show any symptoms and by testing negative it will ensure that residents can continue their day while still following public health rules.

And now that schools have reopened, parents of school children are also encouraged to visit either one of the mobile or fixed testing centres.

Alternatively parents can arrange to collect the?home test kits from their nearest national testing centre, or there is home delivery by the NHS for those who can’t collect.?

Teignbridge Council Leader, Alan Connett, said: ‘We’re really pleased to have worked with Devon County Council to secure this important facility for Newton Abbot and Teignbridge.

‘Here we have a considerable number of local businesses where staff have frontline roles – supermarkets, testing centres, and food producers – so it’s vitally important that we support them to be able to continue to operate safely, but also to support our non-essential businesses to reopen, and help to kickstart our local economy.’

To book a rapid test and to find out more about Community Testing in Devon, visit?devon.cc/testing  

Anyone showing symptoms of having the virus should apply to the?national testing programme at https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test