Covid lateral flow tests were handed out in North West Dumfries because of their low uptake in the area.
Community testing teams identified that few people were collecting lateral flow devices and so took the kits to them instead.
Annie Johnson is the Dumfries and Galloway Council officer leading on the testing programme in partnership with Public Health Scotland colleagues.
Speaking at the council’s response, renewal and recovery sub-committee last Thursday, she said: “A priority for our teams is to do outreach work and take ourselves into specific areas and make it more convenient for people to collect tests.
“We’re doing that in supermarkets, the train station at Lockerbie, and places where we know there are going to be groups of people.
“One of the areas where we know we had a low uptake was in North West Dumfries. We’ve piloted in the last two weeks, going into North West Dumfries, round about McDonald’s, and I think we increased by five-fold the number of tests.”
Dumfries and Galloway’s 13 static testing sites remain in place, providing access to lateral flow devices both through testing on-site and the provision of seven-day packs which can be collected for use at home.
Funding was extended to allow these to remain in place until June 30, 2022.
However, it was also shown that just five to 10 tests are taken on average per day at the Ryan Centre in Stranraer. It is open four days per week – Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday – to allow people to take PCR tests.
Annie said: “Uptake was high at the very beginning. It remains steady at the moment, although it has dropped, but that’s more as a result of the changes to the requirements for testing.
“We’re delivering between five and 10 tests per day when we’re open there.”
