Ealing residents are being asked to get tested over the next month to help drive down the borough’s COVID-19 rates and identify people with the South African variant.

How to get tested

People over the age of 16 who do not have symptoms and are leaving their home for any essential reason, including to shop or work will be encouraged to take tests at the council’s walk-up community test sites, located across the borough: 

• Everyone Active Acton Centre, High Street, Acton, London W3 6NE

• Ealing Central Library, The Broadway Centre, Ealing, London W5 5JY

• Perceval House, 14-16 Uxbridge Road, Ealing, London W5 2HL

• Greenford Library, 23 Oldfield Lane, South Greenford, UB6 9LG

• Northolt Library, Church Road, Northolt UB5 5AS

• Southall Manor House, The Green, Southall, UB2 4BJ

The sites listed above will run seven days a week and are open between 9am and 4.20pm. The Perceval House site has extended hours on Tuesdays and Fridays, 9am to 7.20pm. People do not need an appointment to attend the walk-up centres.     

People will be able to get a rapid lateral flow test that tells them within an hour if they are negative or positive.  

Anyone who gets a negative test will not need to self-isolate, but should continue to follow national lockdown rules, including staying at home except for essential reasons.  They will also be asked to take a follow up test a few days later at one of these centres. 

People testing positive will have to self-isolate immediately and pass on details of those they have been in contact with to NHS Test and Trace. They will be asked to take a PCR test, which unlike the rapid lateral flow tests are designed for people with COVID-19 symptoms, either at a testing site for people with symptoms or by ordering a home test. This will ensure that their test can be sent for variant testing in a laboratory so that it can be better understood how this strain of the virus may be spreading.  Anyone they have been in contact with will also be contacted by NHS Test and Trace and asked to take a test.  Where people can’t be traced, the council will follow up and make a home visit if needed. Pop-up mobile testing units will be sent to high footfall locations where COVID-19 rates are higher.  Staff from these units will also knock on nearby homes to encourage people to take a test.    

Within the next couple of weeks some of the borough’s local pharmacies are also expected to offer free rapid tests for people who do not have symptoms to make it even easier to get a test when out shopping. High school children returning to school will also take rapid tests as part of the arrangement to get children back to school.  

People who have had the vaccine should still take a test. People who are clinically extremely vulnerable are advised not to leave home for the test but if they have symptoms, to order a home test kit at NHS.uk/coronavirus or by calling 119. 

Tests for people with symptoms

There will be more testing sites for people with symptoms with two new walk-through units at the car parks of Dormers Wells and Northolt Leisure centres from Thursday, 25 February. These two sites will be open seven days a week from 9am to 3pm for the next four weeks.  People do not need appointments to attend these walk-through sites but it is recommended appointments are booked at NHS.uk/coronavirus or by calling 119.

These new sites are in addition to the other walk-through local testing sites already available at:

• Featherstone Terrace car park, Southall

• Michael Flanders Centre, Acton

• Gurnell Leisure Centre, Greenford.

These sites also run seven days a week and are open between 8am and 8pm. People do not need an appointment to attend these walk-through sites but it is recommended appointments are booked at NHS.uk/coronavirus or by calling 119.

For people that would prefer to attend the drive through centre in Gurnell Leisure Centre car park, appointments must be booked at NHS.uk/coronavirus or by calling 119.  The drive through site is currently there three to four times a week and is open from 9am to 3pm. Check the schedule on www.ealing.gov.uk/coronavirus