New testing centres and online booking to be rolled out in Wales this week

The testing centre in Llandudno will open tomorrow (Wednesday 29 April) and the Carmarthen centre will start testing critical workers on Thursday (30 April).

Staff from the NHS, police, fire and ambulance services; care homes and other critical staff will be tested by appointment at the centre in Builder Street. They will have a self-swab test without leaving their vehicles.

The Showground in Carmarthen will host a new drive-through testing centre for critical workers in West Wales. This will support other existing testing centres across West Wales, which already provide tests for NHS staff and critical workers, including the police, fire and ambulance services care homes workers and other local authority staff.

From Thursday, the new web-based booking system will be available for those booking a test at the Cardiff and Newport drive-through testing centres. The new system will be rolled-out to other parts of Wales.

Health Minister Vaughan Gething said: “The new centres and online system will help to make testing more accessible and speed up referrals.

“I want to ensure that the process is as quick and easy to use as possible so that people are not left waiting for appointments and so  can keep critical services up and running by enabling workers to get the tests they need quickly and easily.”

Critical workers include social care workers, police, fire service, prison workers and teachers.