Surge Testing London - Wandsworth / Lambeth

[clapham_gull]

So different from the vaccine roll out and confusing.

For those for familiar with London Wandsworth and Lambeth are next door to each other and I live right on the border.

Very different process for Lambeth and Wandsworth for booking online

For Wandsworth (who have their own site) no walk in tests for over a week and picking up a test a long round walk with possible queues anyway.

Lambeth points you to the Government website which lists the nearest walk in as Croydon, when they are CLEARLY in Wandsworth.

I love the advice not to take a cab or public transport to Croydon. It's only a 10 mile round trip.

So ordered some via the Gov website to receive and send back. Randomly clicked on their YouTube instruction link. They have placed a comment under the video to say that the test shouldn't be sent back through the post for testing the SA Variant.

It states collection should be organised via a local authority with no instruction on how that takes place.

Sod that I'll walk to one on the centres, pick up a home one and walk back with it.

Sorry for wasting a couple of tests, but frankly you are wasting my time getting tested.

It's a farce.

 

[Poojah]

It's certainly something we need to get a grip of. By the sounds of things the SA variant was imported back in February, so it's conceivable that it's already escaped beyond the Lambeth and Wandsworth area.

The challenge with surge testing is that it's naturally going to be more effective when there's a 'stay at home' order in place, and people aren't moving about the country. Once people start taking domestic holidays in large numbers it's going to be a lot more difficult to keep troublesome variants under control. To that end, it does beg the question as to whether allowing domestic and international travel in tandem is a wise idea.

I don't think it's something the general public need to become overly concerned about just yet - we still don't seem to know enough about the true impact between certain variants in terms of vaccine escape. But it's one to keep an eye on, I think.

 

[clapham_gull]

It's certainly something we need to get a grip of. By the sounds of things the SA variant was imported back in February, so it's conceivable that it's already escaped beyond the Lambeth and Wandsworth area.

The challenge with surge testing is that it's naturally going to be more effective when there's a 'stay at home' order in place, and people aren't moving about the country. Once people start taking domestic holidays in large numbers it's going to be a lot more difficult to keep troublesome variants under control. To that end, it does beg the question as to whether allowing domestic and international travel in tandem is a wise idea.

I don't think it's something the general public need to become overly concerned about just yet - we still don't seem to know enough about the true impact between certain variants in terms of vaccine escape. But it's one to keep an eye on, I think.

What I don't understand about this is they were surge testing in selected postcodes round in February. Two months later they realise they have to do the whole two boroughs.

 

[Poojah]

What I don't understand about this is they were surge testing in selected postcodes round in February. Two months later they realise they have to do the whole two boroughs.

A leaky bucket I guess, but once that bucket starts to leak into the ocean it's going to become impossible to keep on top of things.

 

[clapham_gull]

A leaky bucket I guess, but once that bucket starts to leak into the ocean it's going to become impossible to keep on top of things.

If reports are true though, they've been a bit slow. They should have done the wider testing much earlier.

They are struggling round here to deal with the numbers.

 

[crodonilson]

Lockdown measures will need to be reintroduced if there is a rapid spread of Covid variants, a scientist advising the Government has said.


Surge testing is currently taking place in parts of London after a rise in people contracting the coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa.



Professor Peter Openshaw said his fellow scientists were “very concerned” after the cluster of cases of the variant were found, with 44 confirmed cases of the strain predominantly found in the Wandsworth and Lambeth boroughs.

A further 30 suspected cases have also been found, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.

Dozens of people in the area are now self-isolating, with people aged 11 and over who live, work or travel through these areas also being urged to take a Covid-19 PCR test, as well as using twice-weekly rapid testing.

NHS Test and Trace is also providing additional testing in an area of Southwark, where a case linked to the other cluster has been identified.

‘It may well be that we are going to have to put the reductions of lockdown into reverse’

Prof Openshaw, a member of the Covid-19 clinical information network, said the easing of lockdown measures may have to be reversed if there’s a “rapid spread” of Covid variants.

He told BBC2’s Newsnight: “A lot of we scientists are very concerned about what’s happening at the moment.

“I think we’re all just hoping that the staged reduction in lockdown is going to be ok. It is being done reasonably cautiously but I think this is not good news.

“If we get rapid spread of the South African or other more resistant variants, it may well be that we are going to have to put the reductions of lockdown into reverse.”

There have been 533 genomically confirmed cases of the South African variant in the UK and another 11 probable cases, according to Government figures.

 

[dsr-burnley]

Lockdown measures will need to be reintroduced if there is a rapid spread of Covid variants, a scientist advising the Government has said.


Surge testing is currently taking place in parts of London after a rise in people contracting the coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa.



Professor Peter Openshaw said his fellow scientists were “very concerned” after the cluster of cases of the variant were found, with 44 confirmed cases of the strain predominantly found in the Wandsworth and Lambeth boroughs.

A further 30 suspected cases have also been found, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.

Dozens of people in the area are now self-isolating, with people aged 11 and over who live, work or travel through these areas also being urged to take a Covid-19 PCR test, as well as using twice-weekly rapid testing.

NHS Test and Trace is also providing additional testing in an area of Southwark, where a case linked to the other cluster has been identified.

‘It may well be that we are going to have to put the reductions of lockdown into reverse’

Prof Openshaw, a member of the Covid-19 clinical information network, said the easing of lockdown measures may have to be reversed if there’s a “rapid spread” of Covid variants.

He told BBC2’s Newsnight: “A lot of we scientists are very concerned about what’s happening at the moment.

“I think we’re all just hoping that the staged reduction in lockdown is going to be ok. It is being done reasonably cautiously but I think this is not good news.

“If we get rapid spread of the South African or other more resistant variants, it may well be that we are going to have to put the reductions of lockdown into reverse.”

There have been 533 genomically confirmed cases of the South African variant in the UK and another 11 probable cases, according to Government figures.

Or put it another way, "I heard someone coughing! Everybody freeze!"

Have you posted this lovely article on every other thread apart from the good news one? It is only tangentially to do with the extra testing in Lambeth.

 

[clapham_gull]

It's a lovely site up at the common.

You can join the hundreds queuing for a surge test then go to the Windmill for a beer !!

( probably best to get beer first )

 

[clapham_gull]

So I rang up the track and trace number to get some clarity regarding sending back a used test in a SA variant surge area.

They informed me I could post it a letterbox marked priority OR organise a courier with them.

Now confirmed from the council (they've updated their website) that such tests should not be posted (obviously) but returned to a designated collection centre in the area.

You'd think one year in they would have worked it all out wouldn't you ?

 

[clapham_gull]

Tooting has 105,000 residents but the capacity at Tooting PCR testing site is less than 700 a day.

Surge ?

 

[darkwolf666]

Tooting has 105,000 residents but the capacity at Tooting PCR testing site is less than 700 a day.

Surge ?

Shirley some mistake, as our systems are “world beating”. *

If, as Boris has recently claimed the massive reduction in infections is due in the main to lockdown, then we ought to be better prepared for these mass testing events, when lockdown is released and spikes identified.

Instead, we are just using buzz words like “surge”, which gives the impression we are doing something other than putting a sticking plaster over a possibly severed artery and hoping the bleeding stops!