Liverpool on Friday began England's first city-wide trial of coronavirus testing in an attempt to prevent hospitals becoming overwhelmed during the country's second wave of the pandemic, AFP reports.

All of the northwestern city's 500,000 residents as well as people working there will be offered repeat tests, even if asymptomatic, under the pilot, which will initially run for two weeks.

Hundreds of soldiers took over a local holiday park, some of the 2,000 armed forces personnel called in to support the testing drive.

Jurgen Klopp, manager of the legendary Liverpool football team, urged people to get tested.

“Do it for yourself, your family, your colleagues and your city. Let's do it together, let's do it for Liverpool,” he said in a video message posted on the club's Twitter account.

Liverpool last month became the first English city to enter the most severe tier of regional lockdown as it battled a spike in cases, followed by nearby Manchester.