Covid-19 testing is being brought to the doorstep of more people in Staffordshire this autumn and winter.

Packs of rapid testing kits will be distributed to households and businesses by Staffordshire County Council to help ensure more people are able to continue to test regularly over the winter.

The council's fleet of community testing vehicles will visit multiple postcodes each day and focus on areas with lower access to community testing sites to help ensure these residents are able to test regularly for the virus.

Cabinet Support Member for Public Health and Integrated Care, Dr Johnny McMahon, emphasised the importance of continued testing.

Johnny said: "People are much busier than they were during lockdown but getting tested regularly remains vitally important to catching coronavirus cases early, limiting the spread of infection and keeping our communities safe this winter.

"We're working hard to make Covid testing as convenient as possible for our residents and have provided testing pop-ups in busy areas such as shopping centres, high streets, markets and at local events throughout the pandemic. Our rollout of door-to-door testing will help ensure more people are getting access to testing kits in the areas that need them most.

"If our testing team knocks at your door, please take up their offer of testing kits and continue to test regularly, even if you are fully vaccinated."

Doorstep testing is being rolled out across Staffordshire from this week and will take place in: Huntington, Hatherton, Belgrave and Cheadle West on Thursday 7; Great Wyrley, Stonydelph, Bagots ward in East Staffordshire, Brown Edge and Endon on Friday 8; Penkridge South East, and Trinity ward in Tamworth on Saturday 9; and Barlaston on Sunday 10.

Staffordshire's Covid-19 case rate dropped slightly this week but still remains high compared to the regional and national average, with approximately 4,000 new cases, with almost half the cases among the 5- to 18-year-old age range.