The ‘worried well’ in Northumberland have been warned not to abuse the system by being tested for Covid-19 when they have no symptoms.

This is adding to the pressure, meaning that those who need tests may face delays or significant travel, according to the Northumberland County Council director of public health.

The council's health and wellbeing board heard that there have been cases of children from the south of the county having to go to Galashiels in Scotland.

Providing a Covid-19 update last week, director of public health, Liz Morgan, said this was ‘clearly not ideal’, while Labour leader, Coun. Susan Dungworth, called it ‘unacceptable’.

“We have done some rough analysis on our own data, because the last couple of weeks we have been getting the data not just on positive tests, but on negative tests,” Ms Morgan reported.

“That has been a real eye-opener, because our initial interrogation has highlighted to us is that in Northumberland, about a third of tests have been undertaken in people with no symptoms, and that’s even taking out tests in hospitals and tests we know have been undertaken as part of the routine care-home testing process.

“This is people in the community who are getting themselves tested with no symptoms. We also know there are higher rates of individuals getting tested with no symptoms in our more affluent areas.

“This is the worried well requesting tests when they have no symptoms and, of course, the testing process is designed for people who have symptoms."

It now takes four days (97 hours) on average to receive a test result from a Satellite Test Centre, up from a low of 26 hours in mind-June, according to latest national Test and Trace figures. Home tests take 82 hours, an increase from 35 hours.

The figures also revealed only a third of people who took an in-person test in the week commencing September 3 received results within 24 hours, plummeting from two-thirds the previous week.

For all testing routes only 14 per cent of results delivered in under 24 hours, down from 32 per cent previous week.

Liz Morgan added: “Part of the reason why the testing process is under such a lot of pressure is because we have a large proportion of the population who are getting tested unnecessarily.

“There are individuals who are getting themselves tested every week. There are some people who have had over a dozen tests and for all of those tests, they’ve had no symptoms.

“If one message comes out of the meeting today, it’s to emphasise that the testing process is for people who are symptomatic. Outside of those care-home testing processes, it is not there for people who do not have any symptoms."