Over the next fortnight, anyone who lives or works in the city, regardless of whether they have symptoms, is eligible for a test.

The pilot aims to see how widespread the viruses, and it's hoped it could lead to mass testing in other towns and cities.

Our health correspondent, Dominic Hughes, has spent the day in Liverpool.

Is this the way out of Liverpool's co vid dilemma?

Mass testing has begun in the city that's seen some of the highest infection rates in the UK It's a bit of an inconvenience, but at the end of the day, if that means you can spend your Christmas with your grandparent's, why wouldn't you?

Haven't got any symptoms, right?

No asymptomatic.

It's just because I feel like more people get tested.

The sooner we can get out of this, get over with and try and get back to normality, Really.

Already a significant queues built up here, one of the testing centers in livable.

None of these people have any symptoms.

Many of them haven't even been tested before.

But that's the point of this pilot to try and identify people who are asymptomatic who don't have any symptoms and yet still may be infectious.

The latest data shows that infections across the UK are still rising, but the rate of increase has slowed on.

While this pilot may only last 10 days, a shorter trial that was expected officials believe it will deliver valuable lessons for other towns and cities is absolutely essential in rolling out testing for the future across the whole country.

On in the absence of a vaccine until we've got a vaccine we have to live with.

Covert covert hasn't gone anywhere.

We have to live with covert.

So having that mass testing approach where communities understand where the virus is, who's got it and what they need to do will be incredibly helpful for helping us all live with covert.

2000 members of the armed forces are supporting the Liverpool pilot.

Some residents will get a faster procedure known as a lateral flow tests that can give results in around 20 minutes.

A positive result by this method will be double checked with a regular swab test, and this approach, testing entire cities, has helped other countries to curb infections.

But community support is vital.

We need buying by the population.

The population needs trust in the government and local government thistles going toe wear that the sacrifice they're gonna make going for testing on the time it takes.

We'll be worth it.

That there is a value in doing this.

The logistical challenge of repeatedly testing nearly half a million people is formidable.

There were some long queues today, but more test centers air opening tomorrow.

The rial value of the pilot, though, will only become clear over the next few weeks.

Dominic Hughes, BBC News.

Liverpool Well, let's look now.

At the latest government figures, there were 23,287 new coronavirus infections recorded in the latest 24 hour period.

The average number of new cases reported per day in the last week is now 22,392 1.

463 people had been admitted to hospital on average each day over the week to last Friday, 355 deaths were reported.

That's people who died within 28 days off a positive cove in 19 test, It means on average.

In the past week, 321 deaths were announced every day, and it takes the total number of deaths so far across the UK to 48,475 when you figures from the Office for National Statistics suggests that the rate of coronavirus infections across England and Wales appears to be slowing down.

But in the last week of October, more than 600,000 people in England had the virus.

Our science correspondent Rebecca Morelle Is he been looking at the figures?

What do they show?

Well, these numbers really do give us a weekly snapshot of where we are with the pandemic and there, based on a survey of households chosen at random from across the UK So this graph actually shows the estimated percentage of people with the virus in England on.

You can see how the case of really rising at the end of September, but they are starting thio level off on.

This suggests that the regional restrictions that were introduced a few weeks ago maybe starting to have an impact, although the numbers are going down and it's a pattern that's being repeated across the UK.

But there are differences in the prevalence of the virus to so in Northern Ireland, that's got the highest infection level, with one in 75 people estimated to have the virus.

In England, it's one in 90 people, and in Wales and Scotland it's one in 110 people.

There are number has also been published today in this slew of data, and this basically gives you an idea of how much the virus is spreading.

And the estimate is between 1.1 on 1.3, the same as last week.

But because it's above one that does suggest the pandemic is still growing.

Now we have got tougher restrictions, you know, the the lock down in England.

But the issue is, if you want to get cases down quickly, you really need to get that our number well below one.

And the question is, with places like schools and universities open at the moment, whether these measures will really do that.