The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Due to the spread of cases of the COVID-19 variant of concern first discovered in India, enhanced testing will take place in targeted settings in four more boroughs in the capital.
“Hillingdon, Harrow, Brent and Ealing will join Hounslow in introducing targeted surge testing to identify this variant and stop it spreading further.
“I’ve met with NHS London, Public Health England and local health officials, and together we will continue to take the necessary action to protect Londoners.
“I urge everyone who lives, studies or works in these five boroughs to visit the website of their local authority for more details and to take a test as soon as they are offered it.
“It’s vital that everyone also accepts the vaccine as soon as possible and I continue to urge the Government to increase the availability of the vaccine to younger age groups who live where this variant is spreading.
“We’ve worked incredibly hard to reduce the number of cases in London and it’s important we all continue to do what we can to reduce the spread of the virus.”
ENDS