Surge Testing in Leeds After Cases of South African Variant Detected

Surge Testing in Leeds After Cases of South African Variant Detected.

SURGE testing has been deployed to areas in Leeds to tackle new cases of the South African variant according to the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).

As reported by the Sun, people living in the postcode LS8 are being encouraged to take a test when offered, whether they are showing symptoms or not.

A Department of Health statement said: “Working in partnership with the local authority, additional testing and genomic sequencing is being deployed to targeted areas in Leeds LS8, including parts of Harehills and the area just north of Easterly Road where the COVID-19 variant first identified in South Africa has been found.

“Extra testing is being introduced in addition to existing extensive testing, and in combination with following the current lockdown rules and remembering Hands Face Space advice, will help to monitor and suppress the spread of the virus.

“Positive cases will be sequenced for genomic data to help understand COVID-19 variants and their spread within these areas.”

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 program that can be solved by testing, which isn’t yet “being done properly”.

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