Households in the Goldsworth Park and St John areas of Woking will asked to carry out a COVID-19 test regardless of whether or not they have symptoms. And the scheme is expected to be extended to Egham within the next few days.
The “surge testing” programme is to closely monitor any community spread of the new variant and to restrict further transmission, according to Surrey’s Local Resilience Forum.
There is currently no evidence the variant, known as VOC-202012/02, causes more severe illness or is more resistant to current coronavirus vaccines.
“This is a precautionary measure – the more cases of the variant we find, the better chance we have at stopping it from spreading further,” director of Public Health for Surrey Ruth Hutchinson said in a statement.
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