Is Surge Testing and Vaccination Coming To Chiswick?
Indian variant believed to be prevalent in local boroughs
People queuing for vaccines in Hounslow this Friday afternoon
Details of the response to the identification of the Indian variant in local boroughs are likely to emerge next week with a significant programme of surge testing and vaccination set to be announced.
It is not known at this stage whether the exercise will aim to target specific neighbourhoods where the new strain has been identified or look to ramp up measures across the whole borough including Chiswick.
During a recent surge testing programme in boroughs in south west London everyone over the age of 11 who lived, worked, or studied in the borough was urged to take a test. In Wandsworth alone over 80,000 people got tested during the exercise.
Extra vaccines have already been delivered to the London Borough of Hounslow after Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock, announced last Wednesday that it would be one of five local authority areas across the country in which surge testing and increased vaccination would be taking place.
The number of cases of the Indian variant (B1.167.2) in London has risen from 400 on 12 May to 720 as of 19 May. Hounslow Council leader revealed on the Vanessa Feltz show on Thursday morning (20 May) that 51 cases of the variant had so far been identified in the borough.
It is not known if any of the infections with the new strain have taken place in Chiswick. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the number of positive tests in the W4 postcode area remain relatively low with some neighbourhoods having no cases reported in the latest week (to 19 May).
Both Hounslow and Ealing boroughs have consistently had the highest infection rates in London over the last few weeks and, as there is a time lag before the identification of different variants, it is feared that the new strain may be much more prevalent in the area than current numbers suggest.
From Monday (24 May) children in schools in the boroughs of Hounslow and Ealing will be offered the more accurate PCR test. Anyone else in the borough who wants this kind of test will also be able to get one for free. Unlike the lateral flow test, the PCR test allows further analysis to be done to identify particular variants.
As of last week about 130,000 Hounslow borough residents or 48% of eligible adults had been vaccinated but borough health officials believe a significant number of older residents have not yet received a jab and they are seeking to identify them. However, hospitalisations in the borough remain low and most new infections are of younger age groups.
Hounslow’s Director of Public Health Kelly O’Neill said, “Whilst we are seeing this increase in numbers, while we are not complacent about it, these young people are less likely to be severely unwell. The key thing to remember though is that they do live within households with our older adults and those older adults, if they get infected, and are not vaccinated are at greater risk.”
Ealing borough council leader Peter Mason wrote to Health Secretary Matt Hancock this Friday (21 May) to ask for more support for local health officials’ efforts to constrain the new variant.
He said, “We all know from experience in other areas, such as Bolton, how rapidly these case numbers can grow. Ealing’s cases are overwhelmingly concentrated in some of the most economically deprived areas in the west and north of the borough. Ealing Council’s Public Health team yesterday submitted an action plan, consisting of a range of targeted, urgent steps to curtail the spread. We wholeheartedly endorse this plan and are asking you today to act to ensure that this plan is approved and the necessary resources are released to enable us to get to work urgently.”
He identified Southall as an area as being particular at risk adding, “With prevalence highest in the most deprived and most ethnically diverse areas of the borough, a resurgence in Covid through the variant of concern would be likely to have a disproportionate impact on economic and ethnic inequality.”
He asked for more government funding for surge testing and vaccination, PCR testing in schools, more isolation support and community engagement.
Professor Kevin Fenton, London Regional Director for Public Health England, said, “In London, we are continuing with measures to contain cases of the variant of concern first identified in India which have been detected throughout the city, including targeted testing and enhanced contact tracing.
“Rates of COVID-19 in London are low overall but we are continuously assessing local situations and will act early and decisively where necessary. As part of the latest review, surge testing and increased vaccination is being mobilised in Hounslow to help us track the spread of this variant, reduce the risk of further transmission and get vaccine protection to more residents, more quickly.
“But we need everyone to help out by coming forward for testing when asked, taking up the vaccine if eligible and sticking to the basics of Hands, Face, Space, Fresh Air, especially as we get out and about in London.”
Currently people aged 32 and over can book a covid vaccination through the NHS website and people aged 34 or over can visit one of the large walk in centres without an appointment to receive their first dose only. The availability of a vaccine is not guaranteed to anyone who turns up without an appointment. Local centres are at the Brentford Fountain Leisure Centre, CP House in Ealing and the Novotel London in Hammersmith and they are open from 9am to 7pm.
Large Centres include the Brentford Fountain Leisure Centre, the Ealing Vaccination Centre at CP House and the Novotel London West centre in Hammersmith.
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May 23, 2021