Extra coronavirus testing will be carried out in parts of southwest London after cases of the South African variant were identified.
Additional testing and genomic sequencing is being used in the SW11 and SW15 postcodes, the Department of Health and Social Care announced.
Surge testing includes door-to-door testing in some areas and testing people without symptoms.
Scientists investigating the link between vitamin D and Covid outcomes say evidence is lacking that higher levels of the sunshine vitamin lower the risk of falling seriously ill with the disease.
Researchers from Europe, Canada and Japan failed to find a link between vitamin D and the chances of catching the disease, the severity of the illness once caught, or the likelihood of a patient ending up in hospital.
Another study found that the variant first detected in Kent may be up to twice as previous strains.
The more transmissible B117 variant, which spread across the UK at the end of last year before infecting large parts of the world, is between 30 per cent and 100 per cent more deadly, according to research published in the British Medical Journal.
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