The new COVID-19 testing centre for NHS staff and key workers and their families in the North Car Park of England rugby's headquarters at Twickenham will start work at 8am tomorrow (Monday) and will aim to carry out 1000 tests a day when fully up and running.

The RFU agreed with the Department of Health to accommodate the facility which includes, clear signposting, lanes marked by bright orange barriers and testing bays.

Twickenham will be one of FIFTY testing sites nationwide and will start by providing up to 400 a day. The Health Secretary Matt Hancock has set a target of 100.000 a day by the end of April.

Mark Lynch, Twickenham Stadium Venue Director said: "Getting the site set up and running in less than a week has been a great challenge that everyone has risen to brilliantly with co-ordinated efforts between stadium, Twickenham Experience Ltd, legal, technology and finance.

"We have a meticulous plan in place to ensure all colleagues operate the site in a safe way and it's a privilege to be able to be able to support the Department of Health and Social Care and front line key workers."

The site's day to day operation is also support by Boots.

Nana Prempeh, Area Manager for Boots in Southwest London, said: "We feel incredibly proud to be supporting COVID-19 testing for NHS workers in Twickenham.

"Boots has been at the heart of UK healthcare for 171 years and has always come forward to support the community in times of need.

"Our team in Twickenham is no exception. Some of our colleagues have already stepped forward to volunteer to run this COVID-19 testing station, which will start testing its first critical workers today."

Health Minister Lord Bethell said:"The Government is rapidly scaling up the national effort to boost testing capacity for coronavirus to protect the vulnerable, support our NHS, and ultimately save lives.

"This new service will help end the uncertainty of whether NHS and social care staff and other key workers need to stay at home, meaning those who test negative will be able to return to work.

"This is a national effort and we are proud to be working with a number of partners to turn this ambition into a reality and roll out additional capacity to where it is needed."

Professor John Newton, National Coordinator for the UK Coronavirus Testing Strategy, said:"New testing sites such as this one are a key pillar of our 5-pillar plan to scale up testing, and are critical in supporting NHS staff and other frontline workers who are isolating at home to return safely to work if the test is negative.

"This is a brilliant example of industries and businesses turning their resources to creating and rolling out mass testing at scale, which will help to deliver on our aim of carrying out 100,000 tests a day across the UK by the end of the month."

The Government is also urgently working on setting up a home-testing service for critical key workers, supported by Amazon's logistics network and other commercial partners.