All Staff Briefing – 17 FEBRUARY 2021

NEW COVID-19 VARIANT TESTING IN MOSTON AND HARPURHEY

Dear colleague,

Further to our message last week, we wanted to let you know the COVID-19 variant E484K – has now been detected in the Moston and Harpurhey area of North .

People living in the community are being notified by letter if they should go for testing, which will run from the following test site commencing from Wednesday 17 February: Ebsworth Street car park in Moston, M40 9WD. Opening times: 10am-5pm, Monday to Sunday.

An additional mobile testing site will be confirmed soon and will allow everyone over the age of 16 years who lives, works or studies in Moston to get a test as soon as possible. Additionally, MCC are using lateral flow tests for frontline workers who do not have symptoms but cannot work from home and may have more unavoidable contact with others. This is all part of the city’s ongoing plans for targeted testing at scale.

Please note this testing is for people who do NOT have COVID symptoms and ARE NOT self-isolating – so you can go to the sites without an appointment. GMMH staff who live and/or work in these areas can attend these testing sites without an appointment.

If you are working with service users who are unable to leave the house, alternative arrangements will be made for people who are unable to get to a test centre and the council will be in touch with them – they do not need to ring their GP. Public Health will add more local testing as the week progresses and volunteers will also begin knocking on people’s doors to offer alternative testing for anyone who cannot get out to a testing site.

Test results for the variant will take around two weeks. Normal COVID PCR test results come back within 24-48 hours. You do not need to isolate while you wait for them, unless you have symptoms or you are a close contact of a positive case. If you test positive for COVID and then the lab sequencing identifies the new variant (takes around 2 weeks), you will be contacted again at that point by the Manchester Test and Trace Contact Tracing Team. This is so that they can identify any links between cases.

If you have already had the COVID-19 vaccine, then please still take a test. We know it can take a few weeks to build up immunity to the virus and this is an extra precaution to be on the safe side. It will also help us to understand if and how the virus has spread in the local community.

However, if you have had a PCR test which has come back positive in the last 90 days, you do not need to take part in this testing.

If you live or work in the test postcodes you can still go out to appointments. It is important that as NHS employees, we lead by example and continue to practice crucial measures to keep ourselves, those we care for and our colleagues safe. Please continue to do your usual Lateral Flow Testing even if you take part in this surge testing.

This testing is extremely useful but Hands. Face. Space. remains our best form of defence, ensuring we wear the correct PPE at all times, maintain a 2 metre distance and practice good hand and respiratory hygiene, all of which has been proven to stop the spread of the virus and this will protect you.

We understand this comes at a time when you are already working so hard in keeping our service users safe as well as helping to deliver the vaccine. If you are struggling, please speak to your line manager and remember that PAM Assist and resources on the intranet and website are available for you. At Gold Command we are looking at ways we can offer more support to you and service users who may be affected by this.

Please remind any members of the community that they may be eligible for £500 of financial support if they have a positive COVID-19 result, or if they have been asked to self-isolate by the NHS Test and Trace scheme. More details are here: https://secure.manchester.gov.uk/info/500362/covid- 19/8014/test_and_trace_support_payments. Please support them to attend testing centres or to get a home testing kit if they are unable to leave the house.

There is no evidence that the vaccines are less effective with the new variant. There is no evidence that this variant causes more severe illness.

More information about – and a map of the areas covered by - this targeted testing approach is available at manchester.gov.uk/covidtesting.

Take care,

Gill Green Director of Nursing and Governance