A FAMILY in Swindon is still wondering if they were infected by Covid-19 – weeks after the dad went for a test.
The family of five does not wish to be identified but told the Adver it has been an incredibly worrying time.
The mother of three children, who lives in east Swindon, said: “My husband went for a test in Swindon three weeks ago and we still haven’t had the result.
“After a couple of days he rang the hotline, and he was told there was a delay with results in Swindon, and he should sit tight and wait for them as they were ramping up testing and getting results out.
“But we have never had those results back.
“My husband is an agency worker and he had to isolate for 10 days and lost pay for those days which we really didn’t want to do.
“We had to isolate as a family and we didn’t know whether we’d be able to send our children to school – it was very difficult and worrying.”
The father has no returned to work as the isolation period is over and he has not developed symptoms – and his wife said doing another test would not have helped as it would have been outside the window from when symptoms first appear.
The family still don’t know whether the man contracted the virus and even whether he has passed that on to them.
His wife says she can’t escape the suspicion that delays might have been advantageous to the authorities in some way.
She said: “I just wonder whether they had infection rates rising here in Swindon and they delayed results to try and slow that rise in the headlines somehow.”
Testing for coronavirus and tracing contacts of those infected is the responsibility of the department of Health and Social Care.
A spokesman said: “NHS Test and Trace is working – we are working to increase national testing capacity and hundreds of thousands of people are being tested every day.
“There is a high demand for tests and our laboratories continue to turn test results around as quickly as possible. To make sure we stay in control of this virus we are targeting our testing capacity at the areas that need it most, including those where there is an outbreak, as well as prioritising at-risk groups.
“We are expanding testing capacity to 500,000 tests a day by the end of October – as well as bringing in new technology to process tests even faster.”
But this week the director of testing at NHS Test and Trace Sarah Jane Marsh apologised for the difficulties many people have experienced in booking a test, with some people reporting being offered a test many miles away from home as the nearest place.
Health secretary Matt Hancock then admitted to a Commons Health Committee delays around testing will take "weeks" to resolve.
When The Adver used the system to check the availability of tests at Swindon’s two testing centres, at Wroughton Park and Ride and the County Ground car park, the system said no slots were available and advised to try again later.
Ms Marsh tweeted: “Can I please offer my heartfelt apologies to anyone who cannot get a Covid test at present.
"All of our testing sites have capacity, which is why they don’t look overcrowded, it’s our laboratory processing that is the critical pinch-point. We are doing all we can to expand quickly.”
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