Mass coronavirus testing in Liverpool has found 700 positive cases in people who otherwise displayed no symptoms.
The city was the first in the UK to offer mass testing to anyone who lived or worked in the region.
2,000 military personnel have been assisting the program over the last ten days. Public Health England director Dr Susan Hopkins said nearly 100,000 people have now been tested.
Mass testing will soon be rolled out across Sefton, however, there are only enough tests to cover 10% of the local population.
Sefton Council Leader Cllr Ian Maher says Sefton Council will “learn lessons from Liverpool over the coming days”
“Although we have been limited with the number of tests and will only be able to test 10% of the population it’s another way of identifying people who have coronavirus before they show symptoms.
“This will help reduce the number of people they might spread it to and in turn the overall transmission rate.
“Those people who don’t have symptoms but who receive a positive test result, meaning they are infectious and could prevent a risk to any of their family, friends and colleagues who may be vulnerable, will then be able to isolate for the required period.
“By taking the tests regularly, people will be able to monitor their condition, which will help to reduce infections rates and help pave the way back to some kind of normality in the future.”
Dr Hopkins said: “We are looking to replicate this across the country”.
She said: “We are also running evaluations in schools and universities and are planning to test university students prior to going home at Christmas.”