A drive-in coronavirus testing centre is to open at Haydock racecourse as part of the British government's drive to increase testing for thousands of National Health Service workers.

The site is part of a network of testing centres being set up around Britain, and will operate on an appointment basis for self-isolating key NHS workers.

This follows the launch of the government's partnership with universities, research institutes and companies to begin roll out of the network of new labs and field testing sites across the UK, with 13 new testing centres opened so far.

"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 who are isolating at home to return safely to work if the test is negative," Professor John Newton, national coordinator for the UK Coronavirus Testing Strategy, said.

"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 in England by the end of the month."

The Haydock site will revert to hosting fixtures when racing resumes in Britain.

"Haydock Park is ideally located near to Manchester, Liverpool and other major North West towns, as well as having very good transport links, so hopefully an ideal and easy location for NHS staff to get to," a spokesman said.