A mobile testing unit has been set up in Maidstone after 'a handful' of coronavirus cases linked to the variant first identified in India have been confirmed in the town.

It began running in Union Street outside Quaker Meeting House and residents are encouraged to get tested in a bid to stop the strain, now named the Delta variant, from spreading further.

Interim Director of public health for Kent talks about Maidstone testing.

In Public Health England's latest weekly update, Maidstone had eight confirmed cases of the strain but since then the number has risen and is now thought to make up almost all new cases.

While numbers are still low, the mobile unit has been set up following a surge in cases of the new variant across the UK and numbers rising locally.

It comes after a two-week targeted enhanced testing programme started in Canterbury yesterday.

It will see health officials urge people living, working or studying in two postcode areas to get tested for the virus.

Dr Allison Duggal, the interim director of public health at Kent County Council said: "We are going for enhanced testing to get the information in and see what we need to do and make sure that we’re on it straight away to stop transmission.

"That mobile testing unit [in Maidstone] is going to be there this week and we would encourage everyone to be tested but it's not a direct link to what’s happening in Canterbury.

"Canterbury is a number of different clusters that we just want to investigate and make sure we can stop it from transmitting."

She added these were part of a “highly precautionary approach.”

The Canterbury district is the county's coronavirus hotspot and has seen a number of cases of the so-called Indian variant in recent weeks, including at both the University of Kent and The King's School, where targeted testing has taken place to monitor its spread.

In the week leading up to May 21 the district saw 42 such cases - nearly half the total figure recorded across the county.

Anyone living, working or studying in all CT1 postcodes and the CT2 7 postcode - who is over the age of 12 and does not have Covid-19 symptoms - is urged to get a PCR test at one of five new mobile testing units.

The testing units will be open for walk-in appointments only from 9am until 7pm, seven days a week.

In February a huge operation saw 9,633 tests delivered in three days to residents across Maidstone in response to a case of the South African variant being found in the ME15 postcode.

Emergency service workers went door-to-door to drop off swabs to get as many people tested as possible in a bid to prevent the spread of the strain.

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