The total number of confirmed cases of the Indian variant of Covid-19 in our area has been revealed.

Surge testing began yesterday in parts of Reading and Wokingham following the identification of a small number of confirmed cases of the Delta variant first identified in India.

All the confirmed cases have been contacted and instructed to self-isolate and their contacts have been identified.

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The total number of cases of the Indian variant in England on June 3, the latest available data, stood at 10,797.

A further 1,511 cases have been recorded in Scotland, 9 in Wales and 26 in Northern Ireland.

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The Indian variant is thought to be around 60 per cent to 70 per cent more transmissible than variants of coronavirus that came before it.

In Bracknell, the total number of confirmed cases of the Indian variant stood at 11 with 62 cases registered in Wokingham.

In Reading, this figure stood at 62, in Slough it stood at 43, with nine further cases registered in Windsor and Maidenhead.