The safety of our staff during the COVID-19 pandemic has always been paramount and we’re proud that in Newcastle, we have been a leader in staff testing from the very beginning of this crisis.

We especially want to thank our nursing, occupational health and laboratory colleagues, as well as everyone else involved in this monumental effort, which has made it possible to test over 3200 staff in the last 6 weeks. Similarly we are enormously grateful to all staff for coming forward for testing and helping us to protect patients, colleagues and their loved ones.

Interim results released today for March showed no significant difference in the rates of positive tests in front-line or non-patient-facing staff. This is reassuring to front-line staff. We know that this virus is spreading in our communities and these results probably reflect that fact. As you are aware we have extended testing to household contacts with symptoms and will continue to monitor testing results closely.

Read the full report here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30970-3/fulltext