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LONDON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Two people in southern England
have tested positive for the South African variant of the
coronavirus without having any links to people who have
travelled recently, prompting "surge testing" to contain the
outbreak.
Residents in parts of Surrey, to the south west of London,
will now be tested whether they are showing any symptoms or not,
the local authority said.
The government said in January it had detected cases of both
the South African and Brazilian variants, however they were all
linked to travel.
The Surrey Local Resilience Forum said it would carry out a
localised "surge testing" programme in the Woking area of the
county which would help it to closely monitor any community
spread of the new variant, and restrict further transmission.
"This is a precautionary measure – the more cases of the
variant we find, the better chance we have at stopping it from
spreading further," Ruth Hutchinson, Director of Public Health
for Surrey, said.
The emergence of more infectious variants in recent months
has raised questions over whether vaccines will prove as
effective in containing them.
(Reporting by Kate Holton and Michael Holden, editing by
Estelle Shirbon)