LONDON Mayor Sadiq Khan has visited the South African variant testing centre in West Ealing.

Mr Khan was at Dean Gardens car park on Leeland Terrace yesterday, February 8 to see the enhanced testing that is taking place to identify and help limit the spread of the South African variant, which was discovered on a local resident at the end of December.

The Mayor spoke with staff at the centre and spent some time with the teams going door to door delivering home testing kits.

He later tweeted: "Testing is key to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"I visited a mobile testing unit in Ealing where council and NHS staff are working tirelessly to roll out tests.

"The best way Londoners can help us beat this virus is to continue to stay at home."

Mr Khan told the BBC: "This surge testing that is taking place in Ealing, Haringey and Merton is so important.

"It will give us an idea of how far this particular strain of coronavirus, the so-called South African variant has spread, it will also give us a chance to suppress it.

"Also, the lessons we learn from this we can then use in the future because I'm afraid there are going to be other variants over the course of the next few weeks and months."

The Mayor's visit was welcomed by Ealing Central and Acton MP, Rupa Huq who tweeted: "Good to see Sadiq Khan has been in West Ealing.

"I was tested at the same test centre he was at (which can identify South African variant) last week – negative result took seven hours overnight."