Thousands of people living in Manchester are to be offered door-to-door Covid-19 tests after a new variant of the virus was identified in the city.
From Tuesday the Department of Health and Social Care will work with Manchester City Council to test people living in six postcodes after four cases of a new strain were found in two unrelated households.
Government scientists have identified the strain, which has been officially named E484K, in recent days. It is related to one first detected in Bristol last month, itself a version of the so-called Kent strain that has now become dominant in the population as a whole, Manchester Evening News reports.