COUNCIL leader Cllr Russ Bowden has branded the national Covid-19 testing system as ‘pretty shambolic’ as the town aims to get to grips with the virus.

The issue arose during the virtual full council meeting on Monday, just hours before strict new measures came into force in Warrington.

Cllr Bob Barr, leader of the town’s Liberal Democrats, said a ‘significant minority’ of people in the borough are ignoring the wearing of masks or other ‘lockdown activities’.

He also highlighted that the Test, Track and Trace system continues to be a problem in the town.

In response, council leader Cllr Russ Bowden said he thinks it is safe to say the testing system has been ‘pretty shambolic’ – and called for resources to be put in to ensure residents can access a test promptly and within a reasonable distance of their own homes.

The Labour politician claimed it is ‘trace the test’ at the moment, rather than ‘track and trace’.

Cllr Bowden confirmed the council continues to make representations to the Government about making sure there is adequate capacity which supports areas that need it most.

Cllr Maureen McLaughlin, cabinet member for housing, public health and wellbeing, also shared her views on the issue during the meeting.

She said: “We work closely with Public Health England North West and our colleagues across Cheshire and Merseyside, whose responsibility it is to follow up and do the contract tracing for cases linked to more complex settings such as schools, large businesses, care homes and so on.

“As a council, we are not resourced to deliver a full contact tracing service, however, we have trained up some staff locally to follow up on those cases that the national Test and Trace system has failed to reach – and we are also utilising those staff to follow up cases linked to outbreaks in the town to ensure that all potential links are identified in a timely way with the aim of stemming the spread of infection quickly.”

But she added that the capacity and resource to do this at local authority level is very limited.

The Government continues to defend the testing system despite widespread concerns.

In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the country is now testing more than any other country in Europe.

He also stated that despite the massive increase in demand for testing, the number of contacts that are being reached from indexed cases has ‘greatly increased’.