Borough leader has ‘no regrets’ over coronavirus test advice and urges Government to ‘quickly’ increase capacity

Councillor Jonathan Nunn, the Conservative leader of the authority, has said that the lack of capacity is a ‘rotten shame’ as people were starting to get the message about the importance of testing.

Recently, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock blamed a lack of testing capacity on people opting to be tested even if they didn’t have any of the major symptoms of the virus.

But local authorities in the area had urged people to get tests even if they displayed no symptoms, but were concerned that they may have come into contact with someone who did have symptoms or had contracted the virus.

And speaking at full council last night (September 14), Councillor Nunn said he remained glad that they did everything to urge as many people to get tested as possible.

He said: “I got asked the other day whether I regret telling people to get a test even if they didn’t have symptoms but just had concerns – which we were doing some weeks ago. And no, not at all.

“At that time, when we had Greencore emerging, we had to be absolutely certain we were testing as many people as possible. And at that point lab capacity centrally meant that tests were being turned around pretty quickly actually. In Northampton we were putting 300 to 500 people a day through the various different test centres. So I’m glad we did what we did at the time and that’s part of the reason why numbers have come down.”

His comments came as a response to a question from Labour councillor Enam Haque, who asked the leader whether he could confirm to councillors that Northampton had enough testing capacity.

Councillor Haque, who praised Councillor Nunn for his ‘passion’ in spreading the message to get tested, added: “We’re in the second week of schools opening and we know there are parents who have COVID symptoms but they can’t get their test and can’t send their kids to school and have to go into self isolation for 14 days. People do need testing for them to get on with day-to-day activities.”

But Councillor Nunn said that the lack of capacity was a national issue, adding: “It’s really disappointing that whatever local folk do on the test they cannot be processed centrally, but that is as a result of the amount of testing that’s being done.

“Somebody pointed out to me the other day that Northamptonshire was at the top of the league nationally for testing, and it was also reported that the UK was pretty much at the top of testing in the whole world. As a consequence there was a short period of time where Northampton was probably the most active place in the world for testing and I’m glad we took advantage of every single one.

“Now that it puts pressure on people because the capacity isn’t there, I’m really disappointed, and naturally people like myself and others have urged Public Health to rectify that problem as quickly as we can.

“But it is a national problem and throughout this whole pandemic there have been all sorts of demands. At the start we all had demands on broadband and bandwidth, later there was the demand on PPE which were far greater than they had ever been before, and now the issue – as people are really getting the message about testing – there isn’t the central capacity.

“That’s a rotten shame, and a rotten shame for everybody who just wants to do the right thing and get a test. I hope that capacity will come up, and I am personally pushing for the Government and Public Health England to please try and get that capacity up as quickly as they can.”

No tests were available in parts of Northamptonshire at just after 6pm last night — when people are being advised they have the best chance of booking. And during the day some residents appeared to be told the nearest test site was almost 30 miles away.

Responding to Councillor Nunn’s comments, Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Sally Beardsworth commented: “Can I thank the leader for being totally honest about the testing, and maybe he could give some lessons to people in Whitehall that they should be as honest.”