diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yml b/.github/workflows/test.yml
index 61c500f..1ed25a6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yml
@@ -41,10 +41,6 @@ jobs:
           go-version-file: 'go.mod'
           check-latest: true
 
-      - name: Install jq
-        env:
-          DEBIAN_FRONTEND: noninteractive
-        run: apt-get update && apt-get install -y jq
       # At present the stock setup-python action fails on Linux/aarch64
       # Conditional steps below workaroud this by using deadsnakes for that case only
       - name: "Install Python for ARM on Linux"
@@ -82,13 +78,13 @@ jobs:
       - name: Wait for testnet
         run: |
           # Start validator at current head, but not before Merge (block 1 on test chain)
-          echo "Waiting for chain head to progress..."
           while
+              echo "Waiting for chain head to progress..."
               height=$(./scripts/get-block-number.sh $ETH_HTTP_PATH)
-              [[ "$height" < 2 ]];
+              [[ "$height" -lt 2 ]];
           do sleep 5; done
           echo "Chain has reached block $height"
           echo VALIDATE_FROM_BLOCK=$height >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
       - name: Run tests
         run: |
-          go test ./integration/... -v -timeout=20m
+          go test -v -p 1 ./integration/... -timeout=20m
diff --git a/scripts/get-block-number.sh b/scripts/get-block-number.sh
index b388590..a51fa9c 100755
--- a/scripts/get-block-number.sh
+++ b/scripts/get-block-number.sh
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ geth_endpoint="${1:-$ETH_HTTP_PATH}"
 
 latest_block_hex=$(curl -s $geth_endpoint -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_blockNumber","params":[],"id":42}' | \
-    jq -r .result)
+    python3 -c 'import json, sys; print(int(json.load(sys.stdin)["result"], 16))' \
+)
 
 printf "%d" $latest_block_hex