The number of people needing hospital treatment for Covid was cut in half when mass flow testing was piloted last year, according to a study.
In November last year, the first city-wide testing scheme using rapid antigen tests was conducted by the city.
The project was expanded to cover the whole of the region, so people with symptoms could be offered LFTs. Key workers were tested daily to make sure they were not infectious.
After comparing Covid cases and outcomes in the region with other parts of England, an analysis has shown that it was more successful than expected.
The dean of the Institute of Population Health, who led the evaluation, said that the early roll out of community rapid testing was associated with a 32% fall in hospital admissions.
Emergency services were able to keep key teams such as fire crews in work because of the daily lateral flow testing.
45% of the region's 1.5 million residents took part in the Covid-Smart project. The key workers took the rapid tests instead of isolating. Only three of 34 Covid cases were missed by LFTs. The results showed that LFTs could be used to keep the healthcare system functioning.
As infections have soared, ministers have adopted a similar model to avoid apingdemic. The government announced last week that double-vaccinated contacts of people who are positive can avoid isolating if they take a daily LFT for seven days.
As the Omicron variant sweeps through communities this winter, access to rapid testing will be important for keeping key emergency, social care and the National Health Service afloat with test-to-release or daily contact-testing schemes.
To make testing useful, communities need to know how to use the test. Taking a test the day before you meet up is not as useful as taking the test just before you meet up because you can become infectious very quickly.
Crowd-sourced health security is the new normal, because you will take out more risk if you mix those you encourage to test with those you don't.
In October, researchers from University College London found that LFTs were more than 80% effective at detecting a Covid-19 infection of any level.
The gold standard of testing is the PCR test, which can detect genetic material from the virus within the body several weeks after a person stops being infectious. When someone is infectious, the surface proteins of a virus are detected by LFTs.
