A woman who was a Covid tester at the height of the pandemic has detailed her experiences in a book.

Julia Haggis, who lives in Warden Bay on the Isle of Sheppey, worked at an asymptomatic testing centre from December 2020 until May 2021.

The 53-year-old was based at the Sheerness East Working Men's Club in Queenborough Road, Halfway.

She said: "I feel it is important to relay that many of my colleagues suffered with various health conditions, myself included.

"We had in place very strict guidelines and practices to protect members of the public and ourselves whilst working at the testing centre – the aim was to provide as smooth and seamless a service as possible."

She said some people turned up the centre with an inkling they were most probably positive – but hoping for a negative test result.

She said: "They visited the testing centre in the vain hope that maybe they could get away with doing the test incorrectly and get a negative result which would enable them, for example, to go back to work.

"Often, they would appear jittery and nervous and even on occasion would actually look very ill with a grey complexion, sweaty, coughing and sore throat."

She says the Christmas period was the "worst time", with some members of the public turning up drunk.

On Christmas Eve 2020, a man came into the testing centre "stinking of alcohol."

She said: "He could hardly stand in the testing booth – the alcohol fumes were seeping through the gap in which the testing kit was handed to the members of the public. You could have become intoxicated yourself breathing in those fumes."

Once it came to the part where the testing swab needed to be put to the back of his throat, she says it was "game over," – and the man vomited all down the wall of the booth.

Thankfully, one of the women working that day had previously worked at a nightclub and came to the rescue to clear up the mess.

"The man then staggered out of the testing centre," she added.

"His test result, well that became been null and void, as the alcohol in his system and the vomit would have cross-contaminated the result."

Julia decided to write her book, Covid and I, while she was working as a tester as she felt it was important to share her experiences before they became a distant memory.

The book is now available to buy on Amazon.

She said: "It is no exaggeration to say, that everyone working at the centre was putting their and their loved ones’ lives at risk.

"Yes, we were working at an asymptomatic centre, but we were handling positive specimens, in close proximity to infected members of the public and handling contaminated equipment.

"There are some very some inspirational tales to be shared. A lot of people won't have realised what went on behind the scenes so it will be nice for people to be able to have an insight into that."