A new Covid-19 surge testing centre will be set up at Moss Side leisure centre after a new variant of coronavirus was discovered in the area.
The facility is expected to open by Thursday along with a mobile testing unit at the Arrahman Mosque on Bedwell Street.
Testing centres have already been established at Our Lady’s RC Church on Raby Street and in the car park of the Gurdwara Temple on Monton Street.
More than 10,000 people are being offered immediate PCR tests after four cases of a new ‘variant of concern’, known as E484k, were found in two households in Moss Side.
People living in the neighbouring areas of Whalley Range, Hulme and Fallowfield are also being told to get tested at the centres or by using home testing kits that are being given out by volunteers.
The postcodes being offered tests are M14 4, M14 7, M15 5, M15 6, M16 7, and M16 8. The exact footprint of the map can be found here.
Hulme councillor Lee-Ann Igbon urged her constituents to get tested at a meeting of Manchester council’s health scrutiny committee on Tuesday.
“This is not fake news, this is to protect you and your friends in the community,” said Coun Igbon.
“We need you to open your doors and listen to those who come to speak to you.”
Dave Regan, director of public health in Manchester, told the committee that there is no evidence that the mutation is resistant to vaccines or causes a more severe illness.
E484K is related to a strain first detected in Bristol last month, which is also related to the Kent variant which has become the dominant strain of Covid-19 in the UK.
The Kent strain has been found in more than 80pc of PCR test samples taken in the city, according to Mr Regan.
Anyone who tests positive for the new variant will not get their results for up to two weeks while the samples are analysed.
Manchester’s own contact tracing team will also be following up positive results to try and avoid ‘bottlenecks’ in the national system.
Mr Regan told the health scrutiny committee: “This will allow us to identify any links between cases, support residents to isolate and manage any clusters and outbreaks quickly.”
