People living in Redditch are being encouraged to get tested for Covid 19, after people in the town tested positive for the South Africa variant.

The affected area is mainly in the west and south west of the town, but people are being asked to check their postcode on the county council's websites.

Image source, Google

A mobile testing van is being set up at the Abbey Stadium this morning and home testing kits will also be available.

Michele Paduano
Health correspondent, BBC Midlands Today

A nurse who has been diagnosed with long Covid says she is slowly getting better, more than a year after being diagnosed.

Felicia Selvaraj was admitted to hospital in April 2020 and her family said they feared they might lose her.

Having survived the worst of the illness, she said recovery has been slow: "Last year, I thought one step, I cannot walk, even I could not put my feet down."

There is no universally agreed definition of long Covid, but it covers a broad range of symptoms., external

An NHS Service set up in the BMI Hospital in Edgbaston has been assessing her and they hope soon she can come off oxygen.

Her son, Rev Emmanuel Selvaraj, said: "Mum has always been active, she never just sits there doing nothing.

"Today, to see her running up and down, making the doctors chase her, that was incredible to see the progress."

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Rhoda Odhiambo
BBC health reporter, Nairobi

Image source, Getty Images

Kenya has confirmed 15 more cases of the Indian Covid-19 variant.

Dr Rashid Aman from the health ministry says this now brings the total number of cases from this mutation to 20.

"The new cases were confirmed from a genome sequencing conducted on 17 samples picked from travellers from India last week. From the analysis 15 had this strain," Dr Aman said.

The B.1.617 variant has been blamed for India’s rise in cases that has seen the country record more than 20 million infections.

The variant has also been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a variant of concern.

Preliminary studies show the mutation spreads more easily than other variants and requires further study.

Seven African countries have so far confirmed the presence of the variant with Kenya confirming most of the cases.

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Worcestershire County Council said the cases have not been traced back to international travel.

The case rate in the city is now above one of the key benchmarks for the move to level two