People With No Travel History Got South African Variant Of COVID-19? Can! In England, For Example

JAKARTA - Two people in the UK in the south have tested positive for the South African variant of the corona virus without having any connection with people who have recently traveled. The findings prompted authorities to launch "surge testing" to contain the outbreak.

People in parts of Surrey, southwest London, will now be tested "whether they are showing symptoms or not," local authorities said.

The government in January said it had detected cases of the South African and Brazilian variants, but they were all travel-related.

The Surrey Local Resilience Forum said it would implement a local "surge testing" program in the region's Woking area.

The mass testing is expected to help authorities closely monitor any spread of the new variant in the community as well as prevent further transmission.

"This is a precautionary measure, the more variant cases we find, the better chance we have of stopping it from spreading," said Ruth Hutchinson, Director of the Surrey Public Health Agency.

The emergence of more contagious variants of the virus in recent months has raised questions about whether existing vaccines will prove effective against the virus.