A large-scale operation to test 10,000 people for the South African variant of coronavirus which could take up to five days has begun.

Yesterday it was announced door-to-door testing would be carried out by members of the emergency services, asking residents in parts of the ME15 postcode to comply.

Watch: Door-to-door testing begins in Maidstone as emergency service workers pound the street

It comes after a resident from the town tested positive for the variant despite having no links to travel or other variant cases.

Kent County Council (KCC) this morning released a list of the specific postcodes which will be targeted, including some in ME16 and ME17.

The door-to-door testing, which will see kits dropped off and later picked up by the same teams, started at around 2pm. Areas which the task force planned to visit today included Queen Elizabeth Square, Boughton Lane and Norrington Road.

Web designer Elliott Beech, 24, of Tennison Way, said: “The team delivering it seemed more scared than we did. It was just a quick knock on the door though and then have it done within the hour.

“It’s come out of nowhere a bit. I went to get petrol yesterday and a man at the pump had no idea about it all happening today.

“It needs to be done though. I’ve never had one done and am a bit worried about it, but it needs to be done. I’m not going to panic about the new variant as Covid's been around now long enough so we’re all used to it.”

One anonymous nursery worker who lives in the target area said: “It’s a lot of confusion and happened so quickly. I work at a playschool in Maidstone and was told yesterday I couldn’t come into work today but now I’ve been told that I’m all okay to go into work tomorrow.

"I live at home on my own and work is a release for me from being on my own and this has just confused things.

“People are getting fed up with it having to stay at home and now getting these tests. It needs to be sorted quickly as it’s having a serious effect on people. I’ve heard from friends and colleagues about their children needing counselling from all this.”

Tesco worker Linda Woodger, 66, of Longfield Place, said: “I don’t mind having it done if it means I’m helping someone out and possibly saving a life.

“It’s all come out of nowhere, but the teams were really good and it was a quick knock on the door. I was a bit shocked to find out that it was this area but it must just mean the one person lived round here or had been round here recently.”

Tisha Hesmer, 49, from Lynley Close said: "They just handed the test over and came back for it later so it was really straightforward.

"It needs to be done but there were so many of them knocking on doors and they were all huddled.

"We saw about six or seven of them on this road so I think there should have been smaller teams. I was happy to have the test because I want to safeguard my kids and my mum."

Paul Peacock, of Tennison Way, said he was expecting a knock on the door after hearing Mr Hancock's announcement last night.

Having just got over Covid himself, he said he was glad the authorities were clamping down on testing.

The 65-year-old added: "It was very straightforward but I was surprised I still needed it because I'm just getting over Covid.

"Myself and my wife tested positive on January 12. We are getting over it now but they said irrespective of that we should still take the test because they are looking for the African variant but we haven't been out the house in three months.

"If this is their way of clamping down on it then fine.

"When you see people going out without masks it makes me angry. I'm just hoping my energy levels come back.

"We are not scared of the new variant but we are being cautious."

Since yesterday's announcement, Martin Cox, leader of Maidstone Borough Council (MBC), has hit out at Health Secretary Matt Hancock over confusing messages to residents.

A mobile testing unit has been set up in the car park outside the YMCA at Melrose Close, Loose and is being used to assist people who are unable to be tested at home and used as a drop off point for these tests.

People were seen queuing at the site this morning but Cllr Cox stressed it was important to go there only if you could not be tested at home.

A KCC spokesperson confirmed that not every household in the target area would be visited.

Martin Cox, leader of Maidstone council, said the messaging has been confusing

They said the task force will be visiting as many of the estimated 10,000 people as they can to get a significant number of tests which are needed to help understand the spread of the variant.

The huge testing operation is called Operation Barton and four fire crews, two from Maidstone and one from both Eastchurch and Canterbury, will be helping.

Stewart Baird, operations officer at Kent Search and Rescue, which is also taking part, said the door-to-door testing could take up to five days to complete and more than 100 workers are part of the task force.

Mr Baird said: "This is probably the biggest crisis our community has faced in multiple generations and anything we can do to try and identify and isolate this new variant as quickly as possible we are happy to do."

Yesterday Mr Hancock caused confusion for some 43,000 residents of ME15 when he urged them to stay at home and await a test during a Downing Street press conference.

But his message was contrary to the advice of KCC and an official map of the targeting area.

This morning the government clarified that national lockdown rules remain in place and that essential workers can still go to work and shops will remain open in ME15, but stressed the importance of residents in the entire postcode taking extra precautions.

At a press conference at Kent Police HQ in Sutton Road, KCCs director for public health Andrew Scott-Clark said the new South African strain was identified as a single case in the ME15 postcode last week.

It's not known exactly where the person contracted it from but Mr Scott-Clark stressed it is likely an isolated case and does not mean other cases will be identified in the community.

While the door-to-door tests are being carried out, he urged people to treat their day as 'business as usual' as no extra lockdown restrictions specific to Maidstone have been introduced as a result of the testing drive.

He added: "We have had a single case of this variant and we are pretty well convinced the case has not spread the variant on to anybody else.

"What we don't know is how the person in question got the virus and that is why we are concerned. But I want to reassure people this is an isolated case and we have halted the spread in the community.

"What we're doing now is knocking door-to-door asking people to take the swab test which will be taken away for testing for whether that swab contains Covid and if it does, we will be sequencing to check what variant that person has.

"We are door knocking to see if we can get 10,000 tests done so we have a wide strategy so we can find out what's going on locally.

Cllr Roger Gough (Con), leader of KCC, said: "There are surge testing strategies like the one in Maidstone today happening across the country so it isn't unique to Maidstone. Other areas have clusters and outbreaks which we don't.

"We are carrying out testing around the area where the one case was detected and the aim is to ensure we get a clearer picture of what is happening within this community and establish if there is any wider transmission. Hopefully not but we will have to see."

Anyone trying to contact KCC by telephone earlier was warned there were problems with the authority's phone lines, with a message appearing on its Covid testing web page.

A spokesman said there had been some issues with the phone lines, which had been "a bit intermittent" and the alert on the website had been "to make sure people were aware that they may experience some difficulty getting through to us".

"It appears the technical issues on some of the systems have now been resolved," they added.

Primary school head teacher Hayley King says more detailed information sooner would have been helpful

Hayley King, head teacher of Tiger Primary School, in Boughton Lane, said it would have been helpful for the list of postcodes to arrive sooner as well as clarification on what essential workers should do.

She said: "I believe parents have been a little bit unsure about what's going on and made decision last light and then perhaps had additional information this morning and are now wondering whether they made the right decision."

"Parents didn't really know what to do and what it meant for them. I know of one of our parents who has been told she can't return to work until she has got a negative test because her postcode falls in that area."

She added that only eight children were in school today, compared to the average number of 65.

It's feared South African Covid-19, like the Kent variant, spreads faster due to differences in the spike proteins, which are the long sucker-like protusions seen around coronavirus cells.

There is no evidence the vaccine is less effective against it but in order for the vaccine programme to work well cases need to continue to fall, making a crack down on possible community transmission of any variant essential.

Meanwhile a leading scientist has said a vaccine to tackle new variants, such as the ones first found in South Africa and Kent, more effectively could be created in just three weeks but would take up to three months to manufacture.

It's thought vaccines currently being used do work against the variants but just how effective they are is unclear.

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