A NEW drive-through coronavirus testing facility has opened for local people and the wider Bridgwater community at Wembdon Village Hall, known locally as The Green.

The testing site is situated in an area of the car park and will not affect the day to day running of the village hall.

The new testing site opened on Monday (September 6) and is only available to people with Covid-19 symptoms – a high temperature, a new continuous cough, or a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste.

Anyone with one or more of these symptoms can get a test at the site, by booking at nhs.uk/coronavirus or calling 119. Booking is essential.

The site will operate from 9am to 3.30pm, five days a week and will be in place for at least the next few months.

Somerset County Council director of public health Professor Trudi Grant said: “The new Test and Trace site at Wembdon is a welcome addition to our network of testing sites in Somerset and we are really grateful to the community for allowing the use of their village hall.

“We hope the location of the site will make it easier for those living in the wider Bridgwater area to access and therefore enable more people to get tested in a convenient way. Testing has a key role to play in helping us to minimise the spread of the virus and contain variants.”

A spokesperson for Wembdon Village Hall and Playing Fields Trust said: “We are so pleased to be able to help out in this way, without impacting the other services and events we provide to our community.

"We’re sure this will prove to be a useful and efficient facility at a time when we are sadly seeing high Covid-19 case rates in our beautiful county. “

Somerset’s Public Health team are keen for people to enjoy their new freedoms, but to do so safely, reminding people of the guidelines around Hands, Face, Space and let Fresh Air in, ideally try and spend plenty of time outdoors.

As around one in three people with coronavirus will not have symptoms, everyone is encouraged to test for Covid-19 before they travel.