LONDON: English county cricket club Warwickshire have donated their Edgbaston ground to the National Health Service (NHS) so they can carry out drive-through tests on their staff for coronavirus.

The ground’s car park will serve as host to the NHS staff for the testing as the British Government bid to radically increase the amount of tests per day for the deadly virus.

There has been particular concern over the lack of tests being carried out on the NHS staff who are in the frontline of treating patients with the virus.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced plans on Thursday for 100,000 tests-a-day nationwide on all citizens to be conducted by the end of April.

Edgbaston is the venue for the second Test between England and West Indies from June 12-16.

No decisions have yet been made on postponing or cancelling any international fixtures in the 2020 season in England.

“Warwickshire CCC has donated Edgbaston to the Department of Health and Social Care to create a drive-through Covid-19 testing station, which will be used to regularly test NHS staff,” the club tweeted.

Neil Snowball, chief executive of Warwickshire, said he was delighted the club could do something for the health care workers. “I am pleased our stadium can be utilised to support the fantastic efforts being made by all of our NHS staff in response to the coronavirus crisis,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2020