Covid: Bracknell Forest and Slough ask for variant surge testing

Surge testing is already taking place in neighbouring Wokingham and Reading

Surge testing could be extended in parts of Berkshire amid rising cases of the Covid-19 Delta variant.

Bracknell Forest Council and Slough Borough Council have officially requested that testing is deployed in key areas where infection rates have risen.

Both authorities said a number of cases of the Delta variant, first identified in India, had been linked to schools.

Surge testing is already in place in parts of Wokingham and Reading.

Bracknell Forest said the Delta variant was now the most dominant in the borough, where Covid cases had risen from 5.7 per 100,000 on 20 May to 96.3 on 4 June.

It said an increasing number of cases had "spread through wider community transmission rather than through a contained outbreak".

Slough said case rates across the town had risen from 23.4 on 14 May to 72.2 on Thursday, where the Delta variant was also the most dominant.

If approved by Public Health England, residents in surge testing areas will be asked to pick up tests from dedicated sites - not through 119 or gov.uk - so they can be checked specifically for the variant.

Charlotte Pavitt, consultant in public health at Bracknell Forest Council, said: "It's clear that in recent days it is starting to rise steadily again and the majority of these cases are the Delta variant, which is much more transmissible.

"Thankfully, our hospital admission rates are not rising at the same rate which means people are not becoming as seriously ill as before.

"However, if dominant variants aren't suppressed, it can have an impact on the vaccination's efficacy so it's vital that we reduce the spread."

Sue Foley, consultant in public health for Slough Borough Council, said: "We do not want to be in the position of Manchester and Bolton with extra restrictions being brought in."

She said Slough had lower uptakes of the vaccine because a large amount of the population was younger.

Surge testing is already being offered in the RG1 3, RG1 5, RG1 6 and RG1 7 postcodes in Reading and in the Bulmershe and Whitegates, Evendons, Norreys, and Wescott areas of Wokingham.

Bracknell residents working in areas where surge testing is already in place are being urged to take a PCR test.

In Reading, the borough council has called for the "urgent" closure of a quarantine hotel after it said it had been linked to a "significant" number of positive cases.

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