Efforts to test 10,000 people in areas affected by South African Covid-19 strain 'on track'
A health chief has said efforts to test 10,000 people in areas affected by the South African Covid-19 strain was "on track".
Clive Wright, the Covid-19 regional convener for the West Midlands, said Operation Eagle was progressing smoothly.
The operation saw mass-testing efforts launched in Walsall, Birmingham and in Worcestershire to tackle the virus strain.
Mr Wright said he believed there were "very few cases" of it in the region but was currently awaiting data from the lab.
He said: "These cases are not linked to travel and so we want to understand how they've occurred and if the variant is spreading in the community.
"Our aim is to test around 10,000 people in each of the communities surrounding the first positive case – known as the index case – we expect to do this over 14 days in surge testing in each of the Operation Eagle areas.
"All of our councils who are involved are on track to achieve this target.
"The response from communities to this testing has been absolutely fantastic with very few people refusing to take a test.
"It's important now, and for the future, we understand how to contain and neutralise variants of concern.
"So far, I understand we've got very few cases of new variants but we are waiting on data from our national colleagues.
"We are expecting that more information in terms of how many people have been tested, how many are positive and how many of these have SA variants over the next week or so."
He added Walsall had the highest case rate in the West Midlands – recording 423.5 per 100,000 – which was explained by the push on mass-testing in the WS2 area.
