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Thousands queue for surge covid testing after South African variant found
Council said the testing operation is a mammoth task
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Thousands of residents have queued to take coronavirus tests at additional facilities set up after new cases of the South African variant were found in boroughs across London.
The South African coronavirus variant is persisting despite surge testing and tough travel quarantine measures, experts have warned.
Cases of the mutant strain have started picking up over recent weeks, even though targeted curbs aimed at flushing it out have been introduced in dozens of postcodes where it is spreading.
Only 544 cases of the B.1.351 variant have so far been spotted in Britain, meaning it s unlikely to become dominant any time soon.
But Public Health England statistics show 75 cases of the strain were spotted in the first week of April the highest weekly figure since it was first detected in Britain in early December.
TOO EARLY TO SAY WHICH COUNTRIES OPEN FOR BRITISH TRAVELLERS SAYS MINISTER
It is too early to say which countries will be on Britain’s green list for travel, UK aviation minister Robert Courts said on Wednesday, after easyJet’s chief executive forecast that most European countries would be on the list.
“It wouldn’t be right for me to speculate as to which countries in which areas of the world are likely to be on which list. We will have to look at the right time, it’s too early to say at the moment,” Courts told a parliamentary committee.
Thousands of residents have queued to take coronavirus tests at additional facilities set up after new cases of the South African variant were found in boroughs across London.
In south London Wandsworth Council said the testing operation is a “mammoth task” but urged all adults in the area to get tested even if they do not have any symptoms, while people in Lambeth and an area of Southwark have been asked to do the same.
People living in an area of Barnet, north London, have also been asked to take a test after a case of the variant was detected.