Appeal for volunteers to help in second area of Surrey surge testing

Surrey’s Local Resilience Forum (SLRF) are looking for volunteers to help test for the South African coronavirus variant in Egham.

Hundreds of people are needed to go door-to-door handing out a PCR test kit and information letter and pick up the tests once they have been done.

The testing of around 10,000 households is hoped to start in the Runnymede town on Thursday (February 4).

Surrey County Council leader Tim Oliver said they learned yesterday (Sunday 31) that a positive test result from Egham had been confirmed to be the mutant strain – from a man with no travel links to South Africa.

The news came two days after they learned of the variant’s presence in the Goldsworth Park and St Johns areas of Woking, where surge testing is due to start on Tuesday (February 2).

SLRF have enough people to distribute and collect the tests in Woking, but only received the PCR tests from the central supply on Monday afternoon (February 1).

“We would possibly have been able to do this a bit sooner had the kits arrived earlier,” said Cllr Oliver.

He said the geography of Egham was “a bit more complicated than Woking, because it crosses the M25 and there’s an international university there”.

He added: “We’ll be starting that as soon as we’ve got sufficient capacity to get people out there. If we’re going to get through this quickly, which is the plan, then the more capacity we’ve got the better.”

The two people confirmed to have developed the variant in Woking were not hospitalised and are said to have now recovered and finished their period of isolation. The Egham man’s condition is not yet known.

Cllr Oliver said the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, which involve taking a swab of the throat and nose, are voluntary but he would encourage everybody to have them.

He described the surge testing as a “census, getting a better idea of how widespread this variant is”.

“It’s nothing to panic about,” he added. “People are at no greater risk if they’ve got this South African variant, but there is this concern that some of the mutations spread more actively than others, including the one that was first discovered in Kent. We want to reinforce the message of staying at home, and hands, face, space.

“The interesting thing is the very small number of people who’ve been identified to have got it had not been to South Africa or had any contact with any people who have been, so it suggests that it’s mutated itself within this country.

“This is to get a better feel how much it exists within the community and then Public Health England will then decide if there’s anything that needs tweaking.”

Surge testing is also set to take place in Maidstone in Kent, London, Hertfordshire and Walsall after confirmation of the South African variant there.

Anyone who can spare their time at the end of this week can volunteer in Egham by calling the Coronavirus Community Support Helpline on 0300 200 1008.

No special qualifications are needed but helpers will need to be DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checked.