Residents are receiving their home test kits this week - Pictures by PA Targeted coronavirus testing has been rolled out in Surrey as authorities work to contain the spread of the South African variant. Door-to-door deliveries began on Tuesday with extra testing in eight postcode areas of the country, as urgent efforts got under way to swab 80,000 people in a bid to stop transmission. In Woking, Surrey – where two cases of the strain were discovered, volunteers were ringing and knocking on doors on streets within part of the GU21 postcode area. Plans involve more than 100 volunteers handing over PCR tests, which are not compulsory, for around 9,500 residents living in the area this week.
Door-to-door testing rolled out after South African coronavirus variant found
People in parts of Surrey will be testing after cases of the new variant were found
Where door-to-door community testing will take place this week (Image: Leicester City Council)
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Door-to-door testing rolled out due to South African coronavirus variant
People in parts of Surrey will be testing after cases of the new variant were found
Door to door testing will take place for Woking s 9,000 residents (Image: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images))
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Intense testing to find South African coronavirus variant gets underway in the North West
OPERATIONS for the door-to-door delivery of thousands of coronavirus testing kits are getting under way across England to help identify cases of the South African variant. The plans are part of urgent efforts to swab 80,000 people in an attempt to halt the spread of the strain. Eleven cases of the variant have been identified over the last five or six days in people who have no links to travel – suggesting it may be spreading in communities. Universities minister Michelle Donelan told BBC Breakfast people in the affected areas should be “thinking twice about their actions”, working from home if possible and “limiting even more” how much time they spend outside their home.
SAGE experts tried to get No10 to close borders WEEKS ago over South African variant
Minutes from a SAGE meeting on January 21 revealed how it urged the government to close Britain s borders
They also warned geographical travel bans would not work in preventing the spread of South African variant
News comes as it was revealed that officials will go door to door to test people in eight areas in England
Officials will take swabs in Woking, Walsall, as well as parts of London, Kent, Hertfordshire and Lancashire
Public Health England has already spotted 105 cases of the B.1.351 variant, as it is known, across the country