Surge Testing Begun As Covid Variant Discovered In West London

SURGE testing has begun in West London as cases of the South African Covid variant have been discovered

Officials have begun surge testing in Ealing in west London after ‘a small number’ of cases of the South African Covid variant were discovered, according to the Department of Health. A government team will now go door to door in the borough and deliver self-test kits to residents.

Ealing was actually one of the first areas to carry out surge testing when a case of the Covid mutation was detected in the W7 postcode at the beginning of February; although that round of testing has now been completed, unfortunately the process has to begin once more due to the new infections.

Officials have added that cases of the variant were recently found in Acton, Greenford, Southall and West Ealing and are urging everyone to take the test, whether or not they are displaying symptoms. Earlier in the week, the Department announced that surge testing would be carried out in Brentwood in Essex after a single case of the South African strain was detected.

As we reported on Wednesday, February 17, a top professor said that surge testing will allow the UK to come down on outbreaks ‘like a tonne of bricks’.

“You can stop the epidemic quicker with testing than with vaccination,” said Epidemiologist Professor Julian Peto, who stated that Covid variants pose a challenge to the vaccination programme that can be solved by testing, which isn’t yet “being done properly”.

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