Around half a million people in the North West will be regularly tested for coronavirus as a mass testing pilot scheme is rolled out in Liverpool.

Repeat testing will be offered to all residents and workers in the city, which has a population of 498,042, even if they have no symptoms.

The trial will begin on Friday and it is the first widespread testing scheme to be launched in England.

Approximately 2,000 military personnel will be deployed to help with the scheme.

Boris Johnson said, depending on the success of rapid turnaround tests in the pilot, the aim is to distribute millions of them between now and Christmas to “empower local communities to use them to drive down transmission in their areas”.

The Department of Health said further detail would be released by Liverpool City Council this week on how residents and workers will be able to access the tests, and did not give any more information on how regular the testing would be.

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said local leaders had made it clear to the Government they were “keen that we should be considered for any new strategies to tackle the worrying rise in Covid-19”.

The aim is to use new rapid turnaround tests – alongside existing swab tests, and Lamp (loop-mediated isothermal amplification) technology for NHS staff – to find asymptomatic cases in order to help prevent and reduce transmission in the community.

Mr Johnson said: “These tests will help identify the many thousands of people in the city who don’t have symptoms but can still infect others without knowing.

“Dependent on their success in Liverpool, we will aim to distribute millions of these new rapid tests between now and Christmas and empower local communities to use them to drive down transmission in their areas.

“It is early days, but this kind of mass testing has the potential to be a powerful new weapon in our fight against Covid-19.”