Door-to-door testing to begin in Kent to investigate new COVID South African strain
The testing will begin tomorrow
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Thank you for subscribingWe have more newslettersShow meSee ourprivacy notice Households in ME15 will be subject to door-to-door coronavirus testing from tomorrow (February 2).
Kent County Council confirmed that households in the Maidstone postcode will be tested after a specific variant of coronavirus was detected.
South African Covid-19 cases see door-to-door testing in Maidstone as Health Secretary Matt Hancock warns ME15 residents to stay at home
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Updated: 10:54, 02 February 2021
Door-to-door testing will take place in Maidstone after a case of the South African Covid-19 variant was found.
Home Secretary Matt Hancock said that people living in the ME15 part of Kent, which covers much of Maidstone, are to stay inside and wait to be tested, although a map has since revealed it will not be the whole postcode area.
The map of the area, which includes ME15 and a few addresses in ME16 and ME17
Speaking at this evening s Downing Street briefing, he said 105 cases of the South African variant had been found in the UK, with 11 which did not appear to have any links to international travel.
Coronavirus cases in Kent and Medway drop by 44% since latest lockdown
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Updated: 19:40, 21 January 2021
Coronavirus cases continue to fall across the county, but a public health boss has warned residents that the 13 districts are not out of the woods yet .
The latest figures show that the number of weekly Covid cases has plummeted by 44% since Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a third national lockdown three weeks ago, on January 4.
Kent s director of public health Andrew Scott-Clark undergoes a Covid test in Sheerness. He s said we re not out of the woods yet.
Around 9,611 residents were diagnosed with the virus across Kent, including Medway, over the last seven days, compared to 10,751 the week before.
A new temporary mortuary has been set up in Aylesford, Kent. Stuart Thomas A large temporary mortuary has been set up in north Kent to store bodies as the Covid-19 death toll rises. Kent County Council say the need to activate the temporary morgue is a stark reminder to everyone to follow the lockdown guidance as The Aylesford Temporary Place of Rest, a giant marquee located just north of Maidstone in Kent, opened on New Year s Day to ease pressure on hospital mortuaries which are currently reaching full capacity. In the last two weeks of 2020, more people have died in the south east of England than anywhere else in England and Wales, and health providers warn they are likely to face even greater pressures in the coming weeks.
Problems booking slots for rapid-result testing for people without Covid symptoms in Thanet and Swale
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Updated: 13:18, 31 December 2020
A Covid-19 test booking system recently launched for people without symptoms is running into problems with many unable to get through to secure a slot.
The Kent County Council-run service, rolled out in Thanet and Swale, is for rapid-result testing, aimed at people who may be unknowingly spreading the virus in the community.
Queues outside the Sheerness East Working Men s Club coronavirus testing station at Halfway on Sheppey
But many trying to book a slot through the kcc.healthit.org.uk website, shared by the authority yesterday, have been unable to get through, instead being met with a page error message.