Covid: Merthyr Tydfil mass testing begins
Hundreds of people queued as mass testing began in Merthyr Tydfil, set up to try and curb the spread of Covid.
Up to 60,000 people could be tested in total, with those without symptoms urged to take a test.
It prompted concerns some could be left hard up if told to self-isolate weeks before Christmas.
Shirley Jones, 82 whose partner died just 24 hours earlier while awaiting cancer treatment delayed due to the pandemic, was the first
to be tested.
She said: "I could've stayed in this morning and not come because I was grieving, but I knew I had to do the right thing in coming up
here for myself for our community.
"And I pray to God that everybody comes up and has a test like I have."
Ms Jones said her partner, Desmond Rogers, 83, who died at the town's Prince Charles Hospital, had bowel cancer which spread to
his stomach and throat.
"I couldn't say goodbye to him," she told the PA news agency.
Anyone living or working in the county can now get a test, in a bid to curb the spread of the virus and queues have formed at
the town's testing centre.
On Saturday Merthyr council also revealed the full list of testing sites and their opening times.
Merthyr council has created a regional helpline for those who test positive or were contacted by tracers and told to self-isolate.
The Welsh Government has set up a payment scheme for those on low wages.
Council leader Kevin O'Neill confirmed about 60,000 people could be tested.
"We want that response today of people coming along who are not symptomatic," he said.
"We can seek out the disease where we don't know where it is, where people haven't got the symptoms," he told BBC Radio Wales.
"This is all about getting something in place that will work for the rest of the country."
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