‘Community collect’ now available
With the full return to school underway, home testing for COVID-19 is available for free, for all households with nursery, primary, secondary and college age children and young people as long as you don’t have symptoms.
The following groups can collect free test kits for people without symptoms to use at home twice each week:
- Households with nursery, primary school, secondary school and college age children, including those in their childcare and support bubbles.
- Households, childcare and support bubbles of nursery, primary, secondary and college staff.
- Adults working in the wider school community, including supply teachers, bus drivers and after school club leaders.
If you are eligible and unable to collect test kits to do at home, they can book a test at a community testing site or order a home test kit for home delivery.
Where to collect home test kits
Test kits are available to collect from:
- Newclose County Cricket Ground, Blackwater Road, Newport, PO30 3BE.
Kits can be collected in the afternoon only, from 12.30pm until 4.30pm, seven days a week and no appointment is required.
Anyone aged 18 or over can collect two packs of seven lateral flow device kits (a total of 14 individual tests) per visit. Identification is not required to pick up the kits.
Each kit comes with full instructions for use and explains what to do if your test result is positive, negative or void, and how to register your result with NHS Test and Trace.
Testing for anyone with COVID-19 symptoms
Tests for people experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or who have tested positive using a home testing kit can be booked online or by calling 119. The Island’s symptomatic testing site is at:
- Newclose County Cricket Ground, Blackwater Road, Newport, PO30 3BE.
PCR tests are available from 8.30am to 12.30pm.
More information about COVID-19 testing is available on the Keep the Island Safe website.
Latest coronavirus data for the Island
These are the latest published vaccination and COVID-19 stats for the Isle of Wight, from NHS England and Public Health England, respectively.
The rate of new cases is expected to fluctuate as people begin to move around more and make use of the increased range of testing facilities available.
Identification of people without symptoms and their self isolation is key to keeping the virus under control without the need for further lockdowns.
You can read the full COVID-19 data report on our website.
The graphic shows the COVID-19 statistics published by Public Health England on 15 March 2021 including data up to 14 March 2021.
The vaccination statistics for the Isle of Wight, published by NHS England on 11 March 2021 including data up to 7 March 2021:
- 68,256 – The number of Island residents who have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
- 6,686 – The number of confirmed cases to date of Island residents who have received a positive COVID-19 test result since March 2020. This is based on the residential address of the person tested rather than where they are registered with a GP.
- 23 – The number of positive cases in the seven-day period.
- 16.2 – Weekly cases per 100,000. This is the number of Island residents who have received a positive COVID-19 test result in the seven-day period, divided by the total population of the Island.
It is vital we all continue to follow the government guidelines during national restrictions: hands, face, space.
- Wash your hands often and for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitiser regularly.
- Wear a face-covering where appropriate.
- Keep space from other people; two metres or at least one metre apart.
Industry re-opening engagement sessions
Visit Isle of Wight (VIOW) has teamed up with the Isle of Wight Council, supported by the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce and Visit England, to bring you a series of industry re-opening engagement sessions, targeted to the tourism and hospitality sectors.
These sessions aim to assist businesses to understand the government guidelines in a practical sense and how they impact on your own business while planning for the re-opening of the sector.
There will be representatives from the council’s regulatory services team, VIOW’s marketing team, Visit England’s “We’re Good to Go” team along with senior members of the council, VIOW and the chamber of commerce. There will be presentations along with plenty of time to ask questions.
Each session has been targeted to specific sectors, so choose the relevant link and sign up for the session today. There is a limit of 80 persons per session, but if
the numbers go over that, more sessions will be opened up. The sessions will be hosted on Zoom.
Alternatively, book direct for your session below:
- Self-catering (24 March, 11am-12.30pm);
- Self-catering (24 March, 3.30pm-5pm);
- Pubs, restaurants and cafes (26 March, 11am-12.30pm);
- Outdoor attractions (27 March, 11am-12.30pm);
- General tourism and hospitality (27 March, 1pm-2.30pm);
- Hotels, guesthouses, bed and breakfasts (29 March, 11am-12.30pm);
- Hotels, guesthouses, bed and breakfasts (29 March, 3.30pm-5pm).
Together we can all do the right thing to re-open our Island safely for residents and visitors alike; so that “We’re Good to Go”; so that visitors “Travel the Wight Way” and everyone respects our beautiful Island and the people who live here.
Comments are closed.