Proactive surge testing needed to "get ahead of infection": UK health director

LONDON, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Proactive surge testing is needed to help officials "get ahead of the infection" as Britain is facing the threat of coronavirus variants, a public health director said Thursday.

Professor Kevin Fenton, London's regional director of Public Health England (PHE), said further genetic sequencing of positive tests had detected more cases in London of the variant that first emerged in South Africa.

More testing facilities have been set up in parts of London to process hundreds of thousands of residents.

"As we begin the process of unlocking and re-entering society and mixing, even small numbers of variants, when they occur, can have the potential to spread relatively quickly," Fenton told the BBC.

"And that is why we have such a proactive program of screening for and testing for the new variants, and, where we have found, we surge," he was quoted as saying.

"We need to get ahead of the infection, and not keep following behind it," he said.

According to government figures, more than 500 genomically confirmed cases of the variant related to South Africa have been detected in Britain.

It is believed the current vaccines may be less effective against the variants first emerged in South Africa and Brazil.

All shops reopened from Monday along with hairdressers, beauty salons and other close-contact services.

Restaurants and pubs were allowed to serve food and alcohol to customers sitting outdoors. Meanwhile, gyms, spas, zoos, theme parks, libraries and community centers can all open.

On May 17, restaurants and pubs are expected be allowed to resume indoor service and see most rules on gathering outdoors lifted.

More than 32.3 million people have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest official figures.

Experts have warned that despite progress in vaccine rollout, Britain is "still not out of the woods" amid concerns over new variants and the third wave of pandemic in the European continent.

To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Russia, the United States as well as the European Union have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines.