Boots UK colleagues have been supporting the Department of Health and Social Care since March, opening up the first COVID-19 testing site in the UK on its site in Nottingham.

The Boots team are experts in point of care testing, and are using this skill set to train over 2,000 army professionals on swabbing and safety technique, as they step in to support the mass testing pilot in Liverpool over the next two weeks.

Asif Aziz, Programme Director Covid-19 Testing at Boots, comments: “We have a team of expert trainers, who have been training testers up and down the country for the Government’s COVID-19 programme. We feel very proud to have been asked again to support the nations’ fight against COVID-19 and to use our skills and knowledge to support the Army as they deliver this mass testing programme in Liverpool.”

The Boots team held special workshops this week, training over 2,000 soldiers who are expected to deliver thousands of tests over the next two weeks.

In Liverpool, people will be offered either a swab test or a new lateral flow test, which could provide a result in 20 minutes without the need to use a lab.

New test sites have been set up across the city, in schools, universities, work places and care homes.

Today, over 800 Boots colleagues are working at 58 DHSC COVID-19 drive through testing sites across the UK. Most recently, a new drive through testing site has opened in Runcorn where anyone with symptoms can be tested.