The Duke of Cambridge got his shot from NHS staff at the Science Museum in London on Tuesday, and he and wife Kate Middleton have since posted a photo of the vaccination on their various social media accounts.
On Tuesday I received my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
To all those working on the vaccine rollout – thank you for everything you’ve done and continue to do. pic.twitter.com/8QP6ao5fEb
— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) May 20, 2021
But while the photo was meant to promote the value of getting the Covid-19 shot, many people were focused on “guns” – specifically the one located where the duke’s right arm is supposed to be.
The pic got people pumped (in a manner of speaking).
That arm is the hottest aspect of Prince William since his younger days when he was Tiger Beat pullout poster levels of appealing. https://t.co/Nj5ISdVhGo
Great to see Prince William setting an example. But, I can’t be the only one secretly hoping his other arm looks like this 👉🏽 pic.twitter.com/yC2HHqzAnm
One woman was so impressed by William’s muscles that she made a humble request to his father, Prince Charles: “He needs another jab in the other arm.”
Dear Prince Charles may I congratulate you on a very very handsome son Prince William’s buff very buff 💪 biceps have made a lot of women happy .. we give him the royal gun salute 😃😃♥️😃😃 He needs another jab in the other arm 😃😃
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In politics, as with the British summer, it never rains but it pours. Just under a fortnight since his stunning local elections success in England, Boris Johnson is finding out just how the political weather can change pretty quickly. And in true 2021 style, lots of problems are coming at once.
First, we had Jenny McGee, the NHS nurse who looked after the PM when he was in intensive care last year. McGee has told a Channel 4 documentary that she has quit her job because of the government’s 1% pay offer and the lack of respect it entailed. “I’m just sick of it,” she said.
Her remarks should act like an ice-bucket challenge to the government, jolting MPs out of their complacency and reminding ministers of just how horrific life has been on the front line for NHS staff this past year. Many are still dealing with post-traumatic stress from the helplessness of combatting this awful virus and its knock-on effects on other healthcare. Many are exhausted.
Yet as the caravan moved on and debate turned to summer holidays, staff in England will never forget they weren’t even given a Christmas bonus (unlike counterparts in Scotland and Wales), let alone a real terms pay rise offer. McGee revealed she couldn’t bring herself to take part in a ‘clap for carers’ photocall alongside the PM, not least as there was little cash for carers.
The second problem came in the shape of Dominic Cummings, who once more hit the Twittersphere to resume his ominous attacks on Johnson’s handling of the pandemic. Ahead of his potentially explosive evidence before MPs next week, the former adviser signalled he had argued for hard and fast lockdowns last year but was ignored.
Cummings also said the UK had a “joke” border policy to deal with Covid, a point heartily seized on by Labour, which is highlighting the rising cases of the Indian variant of the virus and calling for much tougher controls on travellers. Although we know that almost all cases of the Indian variant in London were caused by travel or linked to those who had travelled, there is a strange silence from the government on the breakdown of cases across the UK.
Add to all that the sheer confusion on travel policy. In the morning, cabinet minister George Eustice said ‘amber list’ countries were open to those who wanted to visit family or friends. At lunchtime, No.10 firmly contradicted that, saying all travel to such states was banned other than for a few exceptions. The PM himself said these countries [France, Spain, Italy and so on] were “not somewhere you should go on holiday”.
Even though it is legal to visit such countries and no longer punishable by a £5,000 fine, by the evening another minister had gone much further in the war on travel. Lord Bethell said that any overseas trips were “dangerous”, adding “travelling is not for this year, please stay in this country”. For good measure, he even praised as “creative” the idea of putting electronic tags on anyone quarantining on return from abroad.
No one should underestimate the PM’s houdini-like ability to wriggle out of his political woes. He could arrive at PMQs on Wednesday armed with his strongest hint yet that money had been put aside for a real terms pay rise for NHS nurses, should the independent review body suggest it. Cummings’ own rule-breaking and tarnished credibility in the eyes of the public may blunt his political assassination attempt. Holiday chaos may not really hit home until July.
Instead, it may be travel within the UK, rather outside it, that becomes the PM’s most pressing problem. Eustice went on record to admit local lockdowns were now an “option” for dealing with the Indian variant. Under one hardline option, that could mean travel restrictions into and out of areas like Bolton and Bedford where B.1617.2 is rising in clusters.
The problem is that such local lockdowns have their real potential to cause deep divisions. The Guardian reports today that Bolton council’s Tory leader warned Hancock on Friday that a new local lockdown would cause “civil unrest”.
As well as being potentially toxic to community cohesion, given differing rates of vaccine hesitancy in different ethnic groups, such a plan may simply not work. Even with vaccines, the variant may still escape a tiered system. The Kent variant certainly did when it ripped through the country in December.
On the other hand, if the PM delays the full exit from lockdown for the rest of the country, effectively tying the whole of England to the variant clusters, he faces a sizeable backbench revolt from areas where there is zero Covid. After months of their local businesses living on life support, MPs’ patience could snap and so could Johnson’s.
Still, a national delay may be his least worst policy option. Most of the big changes took place yesterday, and a few weeks more wearing masks and pre-planning pub trips may be more palatable than a fourth wave. There is also a case for saying that in fact the real final unlockdown date should be linked to the government’s own target date for the whole English adult population getting jabbed – the end of July. Any earlier, and unlockdown could be earlier.
But as Johnson tries to justify any delays to his roadmap, the need to ‘protect’ the battered NHS will again become his defence shield. Imagine how much stronger that defence would be if he had thousands of NHS nurses, properly paid and respected, backing his case.
A health minister has added to the confusion over coronavirus travel rules after saying going abroad is “dangerous” and “not for this year”.
Lord Bethell’s comments come after environment secretary George Eustice was slapped down by No.10 for suggesting people could travel to so-called “amber list” countries to visit friends.
Boris Johnson also later stressed that amber list countries were “not somewhere you should be going on holiday”.
But Bethell went much further than government rules, which allows people to travel to Portugal, Iceland and nine other countries without having to quarantine on their return, opening the door to summer holidays.
The peer’s comments are the latest example of chaotic messaging on foreign travel from the government, and are likely to fuel confusion following the lifting of the ban on foreign holidays on Monday.
He made his remarks amid continuing concern over the rise in cases of the potentially more transmissible variant that originated in India in parts of England.
Labour said the confusion had created “dangerous chaos” and called for “a pause on international travel”, while Johnson’s former aide Dominic Cummings has labelled the UK’s border policy a “joke”.
Going much further than the government position, Bethell said: “Travelling is dangerous. That is not news to us or to the people who get on those planes in the first place.
“We do ask people, particularly as we go into the summer, travelling is not for this year, please stay in this country.”
Gareth Fuller – PA Images via Getty ImagesPassengers prepare to board an easyJet flight to Faro, Portugal, at Gatwick Airport on Monday
Earlier, Eustice struck a markedly different tone, suggesting people could travel to even amber list countries if they “feel the need” to visit family or friends.
But the prime minister’s official spokesperson said travel to amber list countries was only permitted for a very limited number of reasons.
“The position remains that people should not travel to amber list countries and that is to protect public health,” they said.
“We recognise that the restrictions that have been placed are difficult for the public.
“There may be essential reasons for which people still have to travel to amber list countries but of course strict quarantine and testing measures will apply.
“There are some limited reasons why it might be acceptable to travel – for work purposes, protecting essential services or compassionate reasons such as a funeral or care of a family member but otherwise people should not be travelling to these countries.”
Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: “The Conservatives’ border policies have unravelled into dangerous chaos within a matter of hours since international travel was opened up.
“There is a lack of strategy, which has meant the UK government, and their own ministers, are giving out conflicting and confused advice about whether people are allowed to travel, especially between ‘amber list’ countries.
“Labour has been clear that there should be a pause on international travel, to guard against further importing of dangerous strains, setting back hopes for ending restrictions.”
After cases of the Indian variant more than doubled in the past week, the prime minister told a Downing Street press conference on Friday that the four-step “road map” we will move to step three in England from Monday as planned – be he raised the possibility of altering the final stage.
The PM said: “But I have to level with you that this new variant could pose a serious disruption to our progress and could make it more difficult to move to step four in June.
“I must stress we will do whatever it takes to keep the public safe.”
At the briefing, chief medical officer Chris Whitty said there is “now confidence” that the India variant is “more transmissible” than the strain first discovered in Kent.
It is expected that the Indian variant will overtake Kent to become dominant in the UK, though there is currently no evidence to suggest vaccines do not work against it.
Johnson said that if the Indian variant proves to be “significantly more transmissible” than other Covid strains “we’re likely to face some hard choices”.
In recent days, the government has launched a series of measures in a bid to dampen any impact from the Indian variant.
The latest is people over 50 and the clinically vulnerable being offered their second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine eight weeks after the first – rather than 12.
The variant is now in at least 15 areas of England – including Bolton, Blackburn, London, Sefton and Nottingham – where councils and Public Health England officials are working to contain any clusters.
This includes surge testing, encouraging people to isolate if they test positive and longer opening hours at vaccination centres.
Johnson said that if the variant turned out to be much more transmissible than other variants, the country could face “hard choices” as he warned of the need to be “utterly realistic”.
He said: “This doesn’t mean that it’s impossible that we will be able to go ahead with step four, I don’t think that’s the case at all. But it does mean there is now the risk of disruption and delay to that ambition. And we have to be utterly realistic about that.”
Dominic Lipinski – PA Images via Getty ImagesITV News political editor Robert Peston in Downing Street.
ITV News’ political editor Robert Peston has been told to go back to school after saying teachers did “not very much teaching” during lockdown.
The senior broadcast journalist made the eyebrow-raising claim in a series of tweets poring over official data on the economy, released on Wednesday.
He suggested that rising inflation was being driven, in part, by massive government spending to ensure the UK economy did not tank.
Peston went on to ponder whether the trend was underpinned by “the government paying teachers for not very much teaching, when lockdown closed schools”.
The other important way of looking at this is that output was surprisingly robust in the first three months of the year – since much of the so-called inflation was (eg) the phenomenon of the government paying teachers for not very much teaching, when lockdown closed schools
The journalist has 1.1m followers on Twitter, and what you might generously describe as taking his brain for a walk did not go down well on the social media platform.
Robert, I can guarantee that every single teacher in this country worked harder than you – a man, who as far as I can tell, is paid £750,000 a year to paraphrase WhatsApp messages he receives from Dominic Cummings.
Bob, I’m literally a fantasy author & I still do more research into what I write about than you seem to have done with this howler.
— A General Sense Of Foreboding (@Scriblit) May 12, 2021
WHOA. I know many teachers, and they worked twice as hard when schools were closed. They had to learn how to do online learning OVERNIGHT, keep track of vulnerable pupils, make online lessons interesting and engaging, etc etc etc. They went from 60-hour weeks to 100-hour ones.
— Margaret P Houston (@HoustonMargaret) May 12, 2021
On behalf of the nation’s teachers, who worked tirelessly to deliver education through lockdown, go to hell.
Are you FUCKING joking?? Seriously, not much teaching! My wife is teaching full days of live lessons and planning for those in school and those online, I don’t know any teachers who weren’t working their absolute arses off during the last year. Please rethink this statement
— Giles Paley-Phillips (@eliistender10) May 12, 2021
Teachers have never worked harder than through the pandemic, juggling teaching across hubs for key workers and online. Supporting students from a distance is extremely difficult.
It’s ignorant to suggest they were doing “nor very much teaching”.
How dare you @Peston ? You really need to rethink this slur on teachers who worked in ways you can’t even begin to imagine to support and teach young people. Shocking ignorance from you. https://t.co/zjZDKJTHCy
This is an outrageous misrepresentation of the work that teachers actually did during lockdown. They were teaching the children of key workers face to face, AND doing online teaching for children at home. And to a very high standard. I think an apology is in order @Peston
— Catherine Parrish (@Catheri63659074) May 12, 2021
Shocking thing to say – schools remained open. Staff managed direct & on line teaching, sorted out mess with vouchers & organised food deliveries, sourced IT. They are exhausted.
Even one of the ultimate Westminster insiders – Larry the Cat, or at least a Twitter account with 400,000-plus followers claiming to be the former Downing Street feline – could not come to his defence.
Robert, it’s not too late to delete this and apologise.
The broadcaster moved to clarify his comments as the backlash continued and the number of comments massively outstripped the retweets and likes – the dreaded ratio-ing.
Sorry. I know all teachers work incredibly hard whether locked down or not! I was not making a point about the amazing contribution they make whether locked down or not. But through no fault of their own, we know their productivity is impaired by lock down. If that was…
not so, there would have been no need to cancel exams or commission expensive catch up programmes. In other words the price of standardised educational outputs has risen significantly, we hope only temporarily
But there was a “don’t shoot the messenger” energy to his sort of mea culpa as he insisted teachers’ “productivity is impaired by lock down”.
The BBC’s former business editor was leaning into the strict economic definition of “productivity”, rather than displaying a more empathetic understanding of teachers being “productive” as they grappling with mass virtual learning and pastoral care that doubtless went above and beyond the call of duty.
The Guardian reported last year about “Britain’s teacher heroes” during lockdown, detailing how one teacher created his own YouTube character and another took students on virtual walks.
The words you were looking for were ‘sorry, I didn’t think that through, and I apologise profusely’.
PAA trade union has slammed a train company after it promised employees a bonus in what was actually a cybersecurity test.
A train company has come under fire for emailling 2,500 staff to say they were in line for a bonus – only to reveal later it was actually a cybersecurity test.
West Midlands Trains (WMT) told staff they would receive a financial reward thanks to their “hard work” during the coronavirus pandemic.
Recipients were invited to click on a link for “information of your one-off payment”.
But the company sent a further email to those who opened the link, explaining that “this was a test designed by our IT team”.
The original message was designed to “closely mimic the tactics that, sadly, are being used on a daily basis by expert criminal organisations to try to gain access to company data”, the follow-up message stated.
The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) trade union claimed the promise of a bonus was sent to 2,500 members of staff, and condemned the the move as a “cynical and shocking stunt”.
Manuel Cortes, the union’s general secretary, said: “This was a cynical and shocking stunt by West Midlands Trains, designed to trick employees who have been on the front line throughout this terrible pandemic, ensuring essential workers were able to travel.
“The company must now account for their totally crass and reprehensible behaviour.
“They could and should have used any other pretext to test their internet security.
“It’s almost beyond belief that they chose to falsely offer a bonus to workers who have done so much in the fight against this virus.
“Our members have made real sacrifices these past 12 months and more.
“Some WMT staff have caught the disease at work, one has tragically died, and others have placed family members at great risk.
“We need to know who sanctioned this email and we need an apology.
“Moreover, having fraudulently held out the prospect of a payment to staff, WMT must now be as good as their word and stump up a bonus to each and every worker.
“In that way the company can begin to right a wrong which has needlessly caused so much hurt.”
A spokesman for WMT, the parent company of West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway, said: “We take cybersecurity very seriously, providing regular training on the subject and we run exercises to test our resilience.
“Fraud cost the transport industry billions of pounds every year.
“This important test was deliberately designed with the sort of language used by real cyber criminals but without the damaging consequences.”
Hopes have been raised that the UK could move a step closer to pre-pandemic normality if the one-metre plus rule for social distancing is relaxed next month.
The government has been targeting June 21 as the earliest date on which the vast majority of coronavirus restrictions can be lifted as part of its four-step “roadmap” out of lockdown.
With around 50 million doses of a vaccine in people’s arms, the UK’s successful inoculation programme appears to be influencing the government’s thinking on how far it can go with re-opening.
While post-weekend reporting of Covid cases tends to be lower than the average, official figures on Monday showed the UK has recorded just one death in the latest 24-hour period.
What could happen?
The Times reported social distancing rules will be lifted to allow pubs, restaurants and theatres to open to full capacity for the first time in more than a year.
One-way systems, screens and mask-wearing while moving around might remain for hospitality venues but customer numbers will no longer be limited, the newspaper said.
Audiences in theatres and cinemas will have to wear face coverings during performances, while there will be strict guidance on ventilation and staggered entry, The Times reported.
A government insider told The Times: “The evidence we’ve got so far from the pilots is very positive and the general background on data is hugely encouraging in terms of numbers, falling deaths and hospitalisations.
“The pilots have shown us that mitigations have worked sufficiently to allow us to remove social distancing at least in the settings that we really need to in order to get them in a viable position again.
“The kind of thing we’re looking at is keeping in place mask wearing, extra ventilation, staggered entry — all of that has been shown to have worked so far.”
What has the government said?
Responding to the report, Boris Johnson said there was a “good chance” the one-metre plus rule for social distancing can be ditched next month.
The final decision on whether the change can be brought in from June 21 will depend on the data, the prime minister added.
Johnson said he feels like the next stage of reopening on May 17 – which covers indoor hospitality, entertainment and possibly foreign travel – “is going to be good”.
Speaking during a campaign visit to Hartlepool, Johnson told reporters: “As things stand, and the way things are going, with the vaccine rollout going the way that it is – we have done 50 million jabs as I speak to you today, quarter of the adult population, one in four have had two jabs.
“You are seeing the results of that really starting to show up in the epidemiology.
“I think that we will be able to go ahead, feels like May 17 is going to be good.
“But it also looks to me as though June 21 we’ll be able to say social distancing as we currently have to do it, the one-metre plus, I think we have got a good chance of being able to dispense with the one-metre plus from June 21.
“That is still dependent on the data, we can’t say it categorically yet, we have got to look at the epidemiology as we progress, we have got to look at where we get to with the disease. But that’s what it feels like to me right now.”
WPA Pool via Getty ImagesBoris Johnson poses for a ‘selfie’ photograph as he meets members of the public while campaigning in Hartlepool.
A Cabinet Office spokesman pointed back to the wording of the road map out of lockdown, which states that the government “will complete a review of social distancing measures and other long-term measures that have been put in place to limit transmission”.
The review’s findings “will help inform decisions on the timing and circumstances under which rules on one-metre-plus, face masks and other measures may be lifted”.
What does the hospitality industry say?
One industry chief has said a return to unrestricted trading for hospitality from June 21 is “critical” and will mean firms can “come off life support”.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade body UKHospitality, said: “These reports are very welcome if true.
“However, we must wait to see the full detail of plans as any restrictions in venues will continue to impact revenue and business viability.
“A return to unrestricted trading on June 21 is critical and will mean hospitality businesses (can) come off life support and be viable for the first time in almost 16 months.
“We urge the government to confirm reopening dates and these plans at the earliest opportunity, which will boost confidence and allow companies to step up planning and bring staff back.”
A spokesman for the UK Cinema Association indicated that the organisation hopes face coverings will not be a continued requirement.
He said: “We strongly believe that our exemplary record on safety – with not a single case of Covid traced back to a UK venue – and our ability to manage the movement of cinema-goers in modern, highly ventilated indoor environments offer ample evidence that any relaxation from June 21 can be undertaken safely without the need for further ongoing restrictions, including any requirement for face coverings.”
Do scientists agree?
Last month, government scientific advisers said the public should be able to remove face masks over the summer as vaccines do the heavy lifting in controlling Covid-19 – but they cautioned that masks and possibly other measures may be needed next autumn and winter if cases surge.
But there is a fierce debate within the scientific community.
In an open letter, one group of scientists said last month “a good society cannot be created by obsessive focus on a single cause of ill-health” and that Covid-19 “no longer requires exceptional measures of control in everyday life”.
The 22 signatories – who include Professor Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at University of Oxford and Professor Karol Sikora from the medicine school at the University of Buckingham – say mandatory face coverings, physical distancing and mass community testing should end no later than June 21.
The letter states: “It is more than time for citizens to take back control of their own lives.”
But others were less optimistic.
Professor Stephen Reicher, from the University of St Andrews and a member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours, which advises ministers, said calls from scientists and academics to end coronavirus restrictions are “wrong” and “remarkably insular”.
He said: “We have heard from these people before, arguing that Covid isn’t a risk and that restrictions should be lifted.
“They were wrong then and they are wrong now.”
Prof Reicher said the irony of saying “it’s all over” makes such measures less likely, makes increased infections more likely and therefore makes lockdown restrictions “a real possibility”.
What other measures have been relaxed?
And the last sign of progress being made, the government announced the limit on the number of mourners who can attend funerals is to be lifted in England.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the legal restriction of a maximum of 30 mourners will be removed as part of the next stage of lockdown easing, expected on May 17.
The capacity will be determined by how many people venues, such as places of worship or funeral homes, can safely accommodate while maintaining social distancing, the department added.
PAUL ELLIS via Getty ImagesFans watch Blossoms perform at a live music concert hosted by Festival Republic in Sefton Park in Liverpool.
Meanwhile, thousands of revellers without face coverings danced shoulder to shoulder to live music for the first time in more than a year at a pilot music festival.
Around 5,000 people packed into Sefton Park in Liverpool on Sunday for the outdoor gig which included performances from Blossoms, The Lathums and Liverpool singer-songwriter Zuzu.
Pictures and videos showed people packed together, arms in the air, dancing to the music at the event which has been hailed as a milestone towards getting live events running again.
Everyone had to produce negative coronavirus tests to enter the event but did not have to wear face coverings or follow social distancing rules.
It is hoped that test events like this will pave the way for festivals and venues across the country to reopen for mass gatherings again.
What about foreign holidays?
The ban on foreign holidays is expected to be lifted for people in England from May 17 as part of the next easing of coronavirus restrictions.
But Johnson cautioned that while there will be “some openings up” from that date, the approach must be “sensible” to avoid an “influx of disease” when international travel resumes.
Johnson’s cautious tone came as some MPs called for restrictions on foreign holidays to be maintained to protect the country from Covid-19 variants, and Labour leader Keir Starmer urged a “careful” approach.
Johnson told reporters during a campaign visit to Hartlepool: “We do want to do some opening up on May 17 but I don’t think that the people of this country want to see an influx of disease from anywhere else.
“I certainly don’t and we have got to be very, very tough, and we have got to be as cautious as we can, whilst we continue to open up.”
Asked if people should be planning foreign holidays, he told reporters: “We will be saying more as soon as we can.
“I think that there will be some openings up on the 17th, but we have got to be cautious and we have got to be sensible and we have got to make sure that we don’t see the virus coming back in.”
Starmer criticised the “chopping and changing” of the travel corridors list introduced last year and said such a situation should be avoided this holiday season.
Downing Street has announced an internal inquiry into the leak of private text messages between Boris Johnson and billionaire James Dyson over the tax status of his employees.
The prime minister promised the businessman he would “fix” the issue after personal lobbying from Dyson via texts.
Dyson was seeking assurances before he agreed to build ventilators at the height of the coronavirus crisis. In the end, Dyson never supplied any ventilators to the NHS.
Labour has demanded an urgent investigation be conducted by parliament’s liaison committee, which is made of up senior MPs.
Speaking during PMQs on Wednesday, Labour leader Keir Starmer suggested it was “one rule for those that have got the prime minister’s phone number, another for everybody else”.
The text messages were obtained by the BBC. Asked if there would be a leak inquiry, the prime minister’s spokesperson said on Thursday: “I can confirm that, yes, we have instructed the Cabinet Office to look into this.”
Downing Street also said it will publish correspondence between Johnson and Dyson “shortly”.
“The prime minister said in the House he’s happy to share all the details with the House, as he shared them with his officials,” the spokesperson said.
“That’s what we’re working on, we’re pulling together that information.”
No.10 also did not deny reports, including in The Times, that cabinet secretary Simon Case advised Johnson to change his phone number because of concerns over the ease with which lobbyists and others from the business world were able to contact him.
The spokesperson said: “We don’t get into details of the advice provided between a cabinet secretary and a prime minister ,and so I’m not going to do that in this instance.”
Kirsty O’ConnorPAPeople take part in coronavirus surge testing on Clapham Common, south London.
Surge testing is to begin in parts of Birmingham after a case of the Covid-19 variant first identified in South Africa was confirmed there.
The Department of Health and Social Care said the patient had “self-isolated and their contacts have been identified”.
Health officials added in a statement: “Initial investigations indicate that this case is not linked to a case previously identified in the Birmingham and Sandwell areas.”
The testing will be targeted at households in the city’s Alum Rock, Glebe Farm and Tile Cross areas.
Officially, 600 people in the UK have contracted the South African coronavirus variant according to the government website – but that was based on figures up to April 14.
This is unlikely to be an accurate portrayal of how far the mutation has spread since hundreds of thousands of people have been swabbed during previous rounds of surge testing elsewhere in the country, on top of which it can take days for samples to have genomic sequencing carried out. The process is the only way to detect which variant of coronavirus someone is infected with.
Other areas where cases of the South Africa variant have been found include the London boroughs of Barnet, Harrow, Hillingdon, Lambeth, Southwark and Wandsworth.
The South Africa strain is classed as a “variant of concern” – the most serious classification issued by Public Health England – because there are fears it may be less susceptible to vaccines and could spread more easily.
The DHSC said everybody aged 16 years and over who is contacted from the new areas would be “strongly encouraged to take a Covid-19 PCR test”, whether or not they are symptomatic.
For anyone testing positive for a key variant, enhanced contact tracing – looking back over an extended period in order to determine the route of transmission – will be used.
Meanwhile, anyone with symptoms is urged to book a free test online or by phone.
And the government is asking people to continue using twice-weekly rapid lateral flow testing alongside any PCR surge testing they do.
Last week surge testing was introduced in the city’s Ladywood, Jewellery Quarter and Soho ward, after a single positive case of the same variant.
Speaking at the time, the city’s public health director Dr Justin Varney said: “Testing is an important part of containing the spread of the virus.
“This new variant from South Africa presents a new risk so it is essential that all adults in the affected areas take up this offer of PCR testing to help us contain the spread quickly and identify any further local cases.
“There is financial and practical support available for those who test positive and have to isolate, and their contacts, and it is vital we all play our part in controlling this new challenge.”
Viruses by their nature mutate often, with more than 18,000 mutations discovered over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, the overwhelming majority of which have no effect on the behaviour of the virus.
India will be added to the UK’s “red list” for travel, Matt Hancock has announced.
It means from 4am on Friday April 23, only British, Irish and third-country nationals with residency rights travelling from India can enter England.
Anyone arriving in the country will be required to self-isolate in a government-approved hotel for ten days.
Hancock told the Commons on Monday: “We’ve recently seen a new variant first identified in India.
“We’ve now detected 103 cases of this variant, of which again the vast majority have links to international travel and have been picked up by our testing at the border.”
The health secretary said the samples have been analysed to see if the new variant has any “concerning characteristics” such as greater transmissibility or resistance to treatments and vaccines.
He added: “After studying the data, and on a precautionary basis, we’ve made the difficult but vital decision to add India to the red list.”
Boris Johnson cancelled his visit to India next week, as the coronavirus crisis deepened in India and concerns grew over the new variant.
The already-curtailed trip was postponed indefinitely on Monday, but the prime minister said he planned to hold a call with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi ahead of a rescheduling “as and when circumstances allow”.
Johnson had until that point resisted demands to hold the talks, aimed at fostering closer ties with the nation, on a virtual basis amid calls to impose greater restrictions on travel to and from India.
The cancellation came as New Delhi entered a week-long lockdown to tackle a surge in cases and prevent a collapse of the capital’s health system, as India reported 273,810 new infections – the highest daily rise since pandemic began.
