Covid-19: Mass testing 'a role' in Barrow and Copeland rate

Copeland's elected mayor said many of those who tested positive for Omicron were asymptomatic

Mass testing at two plants in Cumbria could be the reason it has the two highest rates of Covid-19 infections in the country, a local mayor has said.

Barrow and Copeland both recorded more than 3,000 cases per 100,000 people in the week to 2 January.

Copeland's mayor, Mike Starkie, pointed to the mass testing at Whitehaven's Sellafield plant and BAE in Barrow.

He said these were picking up high numbers of asymptomatic cases which would be missed elsewhere.

Workers at BAE Systems' shipyard in Barrow regularly undergo tests

In the seven days to 2 January, Barrow recorded 3,312 cases per 100,000 people - a rise of 89% on the previous week and taking it to the highest in England.

Copeland came second highest at 3,298 - a rise of 120%.

Defence giant BAE Systems employs about 9,000 people building nuclear submarines, while Sellafield employs 10,000 people reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, and both firms test their staff regularly due to the sensitive nature of their work.

BAE also set up its own community testing centre last year and Barrow has previously had the highest Covid-19 infection rate in England.

More than 140 tonnes of plutonium are stored in giant hangers at Sellafield

Mr Starkie, a Conservative elected mayor, said: "I think the mass testing programmes pick up with Omicron a lot of asymptomatic people who would potentially be missed in other parts of the country.

"So I think, yes, it's definitely got a role to play.

"Obviously it's concerning to see so many getting infected - the rate is three times now what it was at the peak - but on the positive side hospital admissions are three times lower than there were, so generally it does appear that people are not becoming severely ill.

"A lot of the feedback we're getting is that many people are barely ill at all, they're feeling very few symptoms.

"So it the mass testing programmes weren't taking place people wouldn't even know they had it."