‘Operation Eagle’ plans in place if new Covid variant emerges in city

HEALTH bosses say they are prepared if there is an outbreak of a new coronavirus variant in Nottingham.

Operation Eagle would swing into action in response to a non-travelrelated variant of Covid-19 in the Nottingham area.

So far there have been concerns around a mutation known as the Kent variant which became the dominant strain of the virus in Nottinghamshire around February.

But more recently, there has been the emergence of the South African variant, which as yet, has not been reported in the county although there are reports from Public Health England of more than 500 cases nationally.

Health bosses have said it is “likely” more variants will arrive in the coming months, and in this instance, plans have been made for how to respond.

Discussed at the Nottingham City Council Outbreak Control Engagement Board meeting on Friday, surge testing, or Operation Eagle plans are in place.

Mandy Clarkson, consultant in public health, said: “If we pick up on these [variants] we want to really tighten up control and reduce transmission as much as possible.

“Locally in Nottingham and across Nottinghamshire some really detailed plans are being developed through our Local Resilience Forum.

“Those plans have really clear structures. We now have named leads in place so should we need to stand up a surge testing response, we feel we are very well prepared to do so.”

Surge testing is not considered to

HEALTH BOSSES READY TO LAUNCH ‘SURGE TESTING’

OF 10,000 PEOPLE

be an emergency but is classed as urgent and would be put in place at the most reasonable time following any change.

It is expected that, should a response be needed, around 10,000 people would need to be tested with Public Health England leading the decisions around who this would be and how it would be carried out.

In terms of enforcement, it does not mean an area would go back into lockdown but “there might be a case where we have a variant of concern that we might need to talk to local businesses... about whether it’s advisable for them to continue”, Ms Clarkson said.

Residents in affected areas would be expected to take a PCR test for contact tracing and follow the procedure as is normal for a positive test.

Testing would be carried out at collect and drop sites, mobile units, existing testing sites and by supporting swabbing at specific premises like care homes as well as roving teams for harder-to-reach individuals.

Plans have been checked for efficiency and costs have been covered for surge testing by Government.

To date, no surge testing has taken place in the East Midlands but information is being taken from other areas. “It’s obviously something we have to prepare for but hopefully we might not need to use. “We’ll keep our fingers crossed that we won’t need to use that,” Councillor Sally Longford, chairman of the board, said.

It’s obviously something we have to prepare for but hopefully might not need to use

Councillor Sally Longford