Four years on – what have we learned from Liverpool’s Covid-19 testing response?

To mark four years since Liverpool led the world’s first voluntary mass testing for Covid-19, The Pandemic Institute has collaborated with Professor Iain Buchan to produce a short film exploring the city’s response, and how we can use data-driven community testing in future pandemics.

The short film explores people’s experiences of taking part in the testing and summarises a recent review carried out for the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on how to best use community-driven testing in future pandemics.

Professor Iain Buchan, Director of CHIL, said: “The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) received the stop-go evidence for making a national community testing policy within five weeks of the first testing centres opening in Liverpool. The original evaluation team has published many subsequent articles and continues to help scientific, policy and public audiences prepare for future pandemics – including the current purpose-led, data-responsive testing framework produced for UKHSA and fed into the COVID-19 Inquiry”. 

“Importantly, through this film, we want to thank the people of Liverpool for helping the world to understand how to respond to COVID-19 with community-driven testing.”

Read the full story on The Pandemic Institute website.