Sheffield’s Director of Public Health, Greg Fell, has encouraged people to take lateral flow tests to maintain the steady decrease of COVID-19.
The latest seven-day average of cases in Sheffield dropped below 50 for the first time since September last year. One month ago, the number of weekly coronavirus cases in the city were above a hundred.
Coronavirus cases have consistently dropped in the last three months
On Tuesday, the Government confirmed 90 per cent of community pharmacies in England offer lateral flow tests.
Mr Fell has since backed the scheme and wants the people of Sheffield to take up the free, rapid tests so cases continue to drop.
He said: “I’d encourage people to start using these tests regularly and we can use them to keep each other safe and to keep the level of the virus down to a minimum.
“The tests are easy to get hold of, there are several ways in which you can do that. You can get them from a local collections points including some test sites in Sheffield, pharmacies in Sheffield or you can order them online to be delivered to home.
“The tests are quick and simple, you get results within 30 minutes. It’s important to be clear though that a negative lateral flow test does not 100 per cent rule out that you don’t have the illness. People still need to follow the rules that are in place.”
Coronavirus deaths have dropped to single digits for the first time since October
It was recently revealed that 83 per cent of people in the first nine priority groups took up the offer of the vaccine.
As the vaccination programme continues to expand and coronavirus cases fall, Mr Fell is pleased with the progress made since January’s lockdown, when a rise in COVID-19 numbers caused nationwide restrictions to come into force.
He added: “All the recent changes are absolutely in line with the expectations that we thought there would be, it’s playing out as we expected.
“There are no flashing red lights on my risk radar at the moment, that may change but currently there aren’t any.”