THE COVID-19 testing site at Haydock Park Racecourse will remain open for a further month, the council has said.

The decision comes after St Helens Borough Council, the Department for Health and Social Care and Haydock Park Racecourse entered discussions over keeping the site open.

It will remain open until Monday, July 12.

A closing date in June had initially been earmarked, the Star understands.

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Cllr Anthony Burns, cabinet member for wellbeing, culture and heritage at St Helens Borough Council, said: “Although the decision had initially been made to close the site down after discussions with Department of Health and Social Care and Haydock Park Racecourse it has now been agreed to keep the site open for a further three weeks after which its operation will be further reviewed.

"It is vital that we have capacity to be able to provide testing facilities as we face increasing cases and it will support our other testing facilities at Fairclough Street Car Park in Earlestown along with our mobile testing unit provision we have across the borough.

“We will continue to assess the demand for testing in our borough and make sure that there will be enough capacity so that residents who have symptoms, which include a high temperature, or a new, continuous cough or a loss of sense of taste or smell, or are asked to take a PCR test if they are a contact of someone who has tested positive.”

  • The facilities at Haydock Park Racecourse and Fairclough Street Car Park provide tests for people with symptoms which must be booked in advance by visiting gov.uk/coronavirus or by calling 119. People receive a QR code or reference number when booking which must be presented on arrival at the site.

You can also collect symptom free rapid lateral flow tests from the two sites Monday to Friday from 2:30pm to 8pm.