Harrogate Dragon Road testing site to be replaced with mobile units

Harrogate’s Dragon Road coronavirus testing site is set to be replaced with mobile units after it closes on June 1.

The Dragon Road site is currently used to supply lateral flow tests as well as provide testing.

Dr Victoria Turner, public health consultant at North Yorkshire County Council, told a North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum press briefing today that people would still be able to get lateral flow tests from 25 pharmacies in the district.

The county council already runs mobile testing sites across North Yorkshire during the week in areas such as Ripon, Scarborough and Selby from 9am until 3pm. Harrogate will adopt a similar approach.

Dr Turner said:

“The current site will close at the beginning of June.

“The plan for this and for any other local test site that need to close is to replace the PCR testing element with mobile testing units, with the pharmacies and online portal providing a really good supply of lateral flow tests.”

Meanwhile, a further two covid cases have been confirmed in the Harrogate district, according to latest Public Health England figures.

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It takes the total number of infections since the start of the pandemic to 7,642.

The district’s seven-day covid rate is currently 24 infections per 100,000 people.

In North Yorkshire the average is 26 and the England rate is 24.

No further deaths from patients who tested positive for covid have been reported at Harrogate District Hospital, according to NHS England statistics.

The death toll at the hospital remains 179 since last March. Currently, four patients with covid are being treated at the hospital.

In the past week, North Yorkshire Police have issued seven fines for breaches of covid rules.

Four of those fixed penalty notices were handed out in Ripon for indoor gatherings.

Harrogate covid testing centre to close on June 1

Harrogate’s coronavirus testing centre will close at the start of June — as the government prepares to ramp up testing this week.

According to ministers, everyone in England, even those without symptoms, will be able to take a free rapid lateral flow test twice a week from Friday.

Test kits will be available either from various designated sites and pharmacies or through a home ordering service.

If someone returns a positive test, they will then need to take a more accurate PCR test.

Ascent Healthcare on Chain Lane in Knaresborough is the only site currently listed on the NHS England website as a pick-up site for rapid tests in the Harrogate district.

However, Harrogate’s testing site in the car park on Dragon Road, which has the potential to offer the kits and perform PCR tests, will close on June 1.

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The Stray Ferret asked a North Yorkshire coronavirus press briefing today about the closure and plans to find a replacement testing site.

Victoria Turner, public health consultant at North Yorkshire County Council, said:

“We have an agreement to keep the site in its current location until June 1. So we are fine to use it in its current form up until that point.

“I guess with the plethora of lateral flow options coming online, including things like the pharmacies, it is likely there will be a lot of other local options.

“It is still fairly early days with the pharmacies so we are kind of waiting to see what the spread is going to be like and whether we will need to encourage more to come in.

“So I think the lateral flow side will be covered by other routes. We are looking across the board at how PCR testing will work from June but there will be other options, including the mobile unit.”

Daily coronavirus statistics

The Harrogate district’s seven-day coronavirus rate remained at 11 infections per 100,000 people today.

The district recorded another six cases, after several days averaging two cases a day.

Harrogate District Hospital, which has six covid patients, has not reported any new coronavirus deaths today.

The last recorded death at the hospital was on March 29.

Harrogate covid testing site to be moved

Harrogate’s coronavirus testing centre is to be moved to a new location “within the next few months”, it has been announced.

The current site in the Dragon Road car park, near Asda, opened in October and has the capacity to carry out about 300 swabs a day.

But because the car park is used by Harrogate Convention Centre, which is planning to reopen in June, the Serco-run site will have to be moved.

Cllr Michael Harrison, executive member for adult services and health integration at North Yorkshire County Council, told a meeting today that this would occur “in the next few months” and at a new location in the town to be announced at a later date.

He said:

“Dragon Road car park is an integral part of the convention centre operation so we will be needing to relocate the testing centre somewhere else in the next few months.

“It has been a useful, central site up until now and the intention would be that Harrogate still needs a site for people to be able to go.”

Harrogate Convention Centre has been used as an NHS Nightingale hospital for almost a year. The Nightingale will close next month without treating a single covid patient.

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Paula Lorimer, the centre’s director, said last week the venue was planning for events to return from June 21 when all social distancing restrictions are due to end.

There are, however, questions over when the dismantling of the Nightingale will begin and how long it will take.

Ms Lorimer previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service:

“Discussions with colleagues from the NHS about their plans for returning the Harrogate Convention Centre to us are ongoing.

“However, we are confident that the venue will reopen from 21 June in line with government restrictions ending.”

Harrogate’s permanent coronavirus testing site opens

Harrogate’s first permanent coronavirus testing site is due to open today just over a week after builders moved in.

The Department of Health and Social Care centre is in the Dragon Road car park, which has been home to the mobile testing centre over the past few months. It will test up to 320 people a day.

It has been replaced with a series of modular buildings with floodlights all linked up to a generator to keep it accessible as the nights turn darker.

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After an initial pilot period, it will be open between 8am and 8pm, seven days a week.

That is far more than the previous mobile testing centre. That had generally been open for four hours a day, two days a week.

People will also be able to turn up on foot, unlike at the mobile testing centres. However, tests must still be booked in advance.

Staff making the finishing touches to the testing centre.

Dr Lincoln Sargeant, the director of public health in North Yorkshire, said:

“We have worked hard to retain and increase the level of testing across the county, so we are pleased that our efforts have resulted in the creation of these two sites, which will be up and running shortly.

“We will continue to lobby for further expansion of testing facilities across the county.”

The Stray Ferret asked the DHSC the cost of building the permanent testing centre in Harrogate but had not received a response by the time of publication.

New Harrogate site will test 300 people a day

Harrogate’s new covid testing site will have the capacity to test up to 320 people a day, officials revealed today.

The full-time site in the Dragon Road car park is set to open next week and will operate seven days a week from 8am until 8pm.

Victoria Turner, public health consultant at North Yorkshire County Council, told a North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum press briefing today the site will have the capacity to test eight people at once.

She added the site would be able to conduct between 280 and 320 tests per day.

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People will be able to turn up on foot, unlike at the mobile testing centres. However, tests must still be booked in advance.

The forum, which is a partnership of agencies that tackle the pandemic, successfully made the case for permanent testing sites in Harrogate and Scarborough to the Department of Health and Social Care.

The Stray Ferret asked the DHSC how much the site cost to build but had not received a response at the time of publication.

Latest Public Health England figures show a further 27 cases were confirmed in the Harrogate district in the last 24 hours. It takes the total amount of cases since the start of the pandemic to 1,500.

A total of 137 cases were confirmed across North Yorkshire today.

The Harrogate district has the highest weekly case rate of the seven district councils in North Yorkshire, with 116 per 100,000 people up to October 10.

North Yorkshire was placed in the lowest category of the government’s new three tier local lockdown system this week.

Another 16 positive covid tests in Harrogate district

A further 16 people have tested positive for covid in the Harrogate district, according to the latest daily figures from Public Health England.

Only one day since the end of May has seen a higher number of daily infections in the district.

The figure brings the total number of district infections to 961 since the start of the pandemic.

The Dragon Road car park in Harrogate will host another Department of Health and Social Care testing site tomorrow from 11am to 3pm.

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Test and trace system is ‘broken’, says Harrogate mum

A Harrogate mother has said the government’s covid test and trace system is broken after she spent two days trying to book a test.

Madeline Smyth endured several fruitless hours yesterday and Monday regularly refreshing the NHS website and dialling the 119 test and trace phone line to arrange a check for her daughter Caitlin, 16, who had a persistent cough.

Ms Smyth finally secured a slot at a site in Burnley, which is a two-hour round drive from Harrogate.

She was fortunately spared the trip because the government’s mobile testing centre happened to be in Dragon Road, Harrogate, yesterday.

On her second visit to the centre, staff provided a test kit even though they said they were only supposed to help people who had managed to book online to be seen there.

Ironically the centre itself appeared quiet because, Ms Smyth suspects, people were unable to get the online booking system to work.

Ms Smyth, who has post-viral fatigue, said:

“It angers me to see people on the telly say there are plenty of tests available. There may well be but the system to access them is broken.

“We were at the Dragon Road site for 35 minutes and only saw two or three cars turn up. Seven or eight people working there were sitting around waiting for cars to turn up.

“The staff themselves were very nice and helpful and I think we only got a test because the poor girl we spoke to took pity on me because she could see I wasn’t fit to drive to Burnley and my daughter was showing covid symptoms.”

Caitlin, who attends Rossett School in Harrogate, and her brother Oliver, 12, are isolating at home pending the test result.

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Ms Smyth suspects her post-viral fatigue is a legacy of covid contracted last winter, which contributed to her relinquishing her role as a teacher at Nidderdale High School. She added:

“I was lucky because I am not working now so I was able to spend two days searching for a test. It was exhausting and stressful but there must be hundreds of working mums in the area with kids that have covid symptoms who don’t have the time to go through this.”

Ms Smyth said schools should be issued with test kits that can be given to children as soon as they develop symptoms.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said:

“NHS test and trace is working, we are processing a million tests a week but we are seeing significant demand for tests, including from people who do not have symptoms and are not otherwise eligible.

“Anyone with an appointment will not be turned away, new booking slots and home testing kits are made available daily for those who need them and we are targeting testing capacity at the areas that need it most, including those where there is an outbreak, and prioritising at-risk groups.

“We recently announced new facilities and technology to process results even faster. If you do not have symptoms and are not eligible to get a test you should not be coming forward for one.”