It has been widely reported today that the South African variant has been found in certain parts of the UK, that they don't believe it's linked to international travel and that in these areas people will be going door-to-door to distribute tests.
It has been stated that Councilors will be visiting every household in this area to give out Covid tests and coming round to collect the completed tests later the same day. My concern is that if any (or perhaps more than a certain % of) tests come back positive these areas will be subject to even stricter controls, perhaps with the police preventing anyone from moving in or out of the area at all, for any reason (except perhaps to distribute food). Certainly from the maps the selected, it's not (as Matt Hancock suggested in the briefing) the entire post code area that is subject to these restrictions, it's more localised to a set of streets.
Matt Hancock suggested that "we need to come down on it hard, and we will", which leads me to believe these areas will be subject to even stronger restrictions (unless perhaps the tests show no new cases).
I should add that I live in one such area so I am very concerned that I'm now going to be entirely confined to home for the foreseeable future.
It has been stated that Councilors will be visiting every household in this area to give out Covid tests and coming round to collect the completed tests later the same day. My concern is that if any (or perhaps more than a certain % of) tests come back positive these areas will be subject to even stricter controls, perhaps with the police preventing anyone from moving in or out of the area at all, for any reason (except perhaps to distribute food). Certainly from the maps the selected, it's not (as Matt Hancock suggested in the briefing) the entire post code area that is subject to these restrictions, it's more localised to a set of streets.
Matt Hancock suggested that "we need to come down on it hard, and we will", which leads me to believe these areas will be subject to even stronger restrictions (unless perhaps the tests show no new cases).
I should add that I live in one such area so I am very concerned that I'm now going to be entirely confined to home for the foreseeable future.