Sign with the words “Testing criteria No COVID symptoms” with the logo for Liverpool City Council on a white background with thick yellow and black diagonal lines used at COVID-19 testing sites as part of the UK's first citywide mass testing programme held across Liverpool from November 2020

Between November 2020 and April 2021 more than 280,000 people living and working in Liverpool took part in the SMART pilot programme to trial mass testing of people with no COVID-19 symptoms. This means that over half of the population of Liverpool were involved. Liverpool was chosen for the pilot because in October and November 2020 there were particularly high numbers of COVID-19 cases in the city.

The signs show the huge logistical challenge that come with running mass testing. Impressively, the mass testing programme in Liverpool was set up in less than two weeks. Even though the pilot programme was focused on testing those without symptoms, people were concerned that symptomatic and asymptomatic people would mix in the queues for testing and COVID-19 would spread. Lots of the signage from the testing centres emphasises that they should only be used by people with no symptoms. Throughout the pilot there was a separate but coordinated system in place to offer polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to people with symptoms using mobile testing units. The signage also shows that an email or mobile number was needed to access the testing and for some people this was a barrier to testing.