Over 64% of people in Diss and Roydon came forward for surge testing
Almost 7,500 tests were carried out during the two-week programme.
Residents from Diss and Roydon on the Norfolk/Suffolk border have been thanked for their participation in the recent surge testing scheme.
All people in the area over the age of 16 were asked to get a Covid-19 test between Friday 19th February and Wednesday 3rd March following the discovery of a small number of cases of the South African variant locally.
Preliminary results show that of the 7,479 tests carried out, 51 have come back positive.
All those people have been told to self-isolate.
It's not known yet if any of those are the South African variant as genomic sequencing is still ongoing.
In total, Norfolk County Council says they believe 64.8% of those who were eligible came forward for a test.
The surge testing was carried out in three different ways by NHS Test and Trace:
- 3,613 tests were carried out by Diss and Roydon residents via Home Test Kits
- 3,276 tests were carried out at Mobile Testing Units deployed by the Department for Health and Social Care to the Diss and Roydon area as part of surge testing
- 590 Diss and Roydon residents were tested during this period via other test centres
Cllr Andrew Proctor, Leader of Norfolk County Council, said: "The number of tests carried out shows just how ready the people of Diss and Roydon were to come forward and take part when asked to do so.
"Thank you to everyone who got tested and have helped us understand exactly what the Covid situation is in the community.
"We're now waiting for the complicated genomic work to be carried out.
"The information this testing provides us could help save lives."
Dr Louise Smith, Norfolk's Director for Public Health, said: ""We've seen a great response to the testing in Diss and Roydon: when you look at the proportion who came forward for testing, you can see people were really keen to take part.
"As a result, we've identified 51 cases of Covid 19 in the area. This is to be expected - positive asymptomatic cases would likely have been found anywhere that this extent of testing was carried out.
"That's why it is so important that we all continue to follow the lockdown restrictions and keep washing our hands, wearing face coverings and keeping our distance from others."
Cllr John Fuller, Leader of South Norfolk District Council, said: "I would like to thank everyone for playing their part in making the surge testing in Diss and Roydon such a huge success.
"The lessons we have learnt can now be used across the country to help us all get out of lockdown.
"The way our residents answered the call to get themselves tested not only helped protect their friends and families, it has also helped our local businesses to be able to step out into the warm spring sunshine."