1,600 TESTED IN CITY FOR COVID INDIAN VARIANT
NEW STRAIN IS ‘CAUSE FOR CONCERN’
PUBLIC health bosses have ramped up testing in the city for the more transmissible Indian strain of Covid-19.
More than 1,600 people have been target tested for the variant in the city in just three days, with a testing HQ set up at the Theatre Royal.
Officials are continuing to target specific blocks of accommodation and have confirmed that the majority of cases identified so far in Nottingham are among people aged between 17 and 39 years old.
The “variant of concern”, known as VOC21APR-02, originates from India - with indications it can spread more quickly among people.
A number of positive tests have already been identified in the city, with some cases found in private, shared accommodation.
The latest data shows that 129 cases have been detected across the East Midlands, but public health officials in both the city and county were unable to provide exact figures for how many people have contracted the new strain of the virus here.
The Indian variant now accounts for 10.3 percent of all cases in the region.
The same figures show that 24 percent of the East Midlands cases were among people who travelled to the region.
Further analysis of a similar variant, also originating from India, showed an additional 44 cases in the region.
David Johns, interim director of public health
for Nottingham city, says officials will be “maintaining a presence” of testing in accommodation blocks over the weekend.
However, he stressed that despite the emerging variant, case rates “remain significantly lower” than when the Kent strain first emerged in the winter.
“We have been prepared to take action when called upon,” he told the Post.
“At the end of last week we chose to respond quickly and over the weekend stepped up targeted testing from Monday afternoon.
“The Theatre Royal is the headquarters for partners and volunteers, allowing us to step forward and get tests to certain accommodation blocks in the city.
“We have tested more than 1,600 residents in the past three days and we will be maintaining a presence on those sites over the weekend.
“What we have seen is that, while numbers do remain relatively low, the proportion of cases likely to do with the variant of concern has been increasing.
“Public Health England data is giving us a rough indication that, in Nottingham city, the UK variant and the Kent variant that has made up most or almost all of our cases this year, has become less dominant in the city.
“This is a proportion amongst a smaller number of total cases, and despite our increasing rates overall, they remain significantly lower than they did when the Kent variant became the dominant strain.”
A “small number” of cases of the Indian variant have also been identified across the wider county. However, these have been “relatively isolated”.
Jonathan Gribbin, public health director for Nottinghamshire, warned that the emerging strain is “cause for some concern”.
“We all need to be extremely mindful that, across Nottinghamshire, we are seeing some cases of the Indian variant,” he said.
“Currently those cases are very few and have been relatively isolated, but it is a cause for some concern and that is amplified when we look further afield.
“We continue to keep a very close eye on that with daily surveillance, with Public Health England.
“We are making arrangements to strengthen what we do around contact tracing, and we are seeking approval around how we might routinely undertake testing of contacts from cases of the Indian variant. Of course, we also stand ready to deploy targeted testing or surge testing on a wider scale if the need arises, but that’s not the case in the county at the moment.”