More businesses in Staffordshire are being offered the opportunity to take part in a rapid Covid-19 testing programme for their employees.

The initiative is part of Staffordshire County Council's plans to increase the amount of testing across the county to help control the spread of Covid-19. Already, community testing centres have been rolled out in each of the eight district and boroughs, including one at Biddulph Valley Leisure centre which opened yesterday (Monday).

The council is making the offer to businesses with employees who cannot work from home due to the nature of their job, to provide regular testing of their staff.

The authority says that one in three people who are infected display no symptoms and are an important vector in the spread of the virus, and that testing for people without symptoms helps to identify and isolate cases and break the chain of transmission.

The county council says there are benefits to businesses that regularly test employees, including:

- It allows cases and their close contacts to be identified early, avoiding large outbreaks that are very disruptive to business continuity.

- It provides employees with additional confidence that their employer is taking all possible steps to protect them from the virus.

- It allows businesses to demonstrate to the community and their customers that they are playing their part in reducing the spread of infection.

Businesses who want to offer testing will be provided with equipment, training, funding to cover their costs, and all the advice they need to establish their own programmes.

The county council is especially interested in involving businesses:

- That have a medium to large number of employees

- That employ routine and manual workers

- That have access to occupational health services who can be trained to supervise the tests

- That have space to set up testing locations

- That have employees willing to be tested regularly and share the results with the county council

Dr Johnny McMahon, Cabinet Member for Health, Care and Wellbeing said: "By joining this testing programme, businesses will be playing a key role in protecting their employees and the wider community. By identifying cases quickly, they can avoid large outbreaks that can be disruptive to their operations. They will also be helping to protect vulnerable people and support the Covid control efforts to get the number of cases down.

"I would urge business to sign up to the testing programme. We all need to play our part in getting infections down, and regular testing is one way reducing the number of cases and getting restrictions lifted."

Any interested businesses are asked to contact [email protected] or submit an expression of interest here.