Health secretary Matt Hancock's confusing testing message caused panic, a council leader has said as he urged as many people as possible to get a swab.

It has been revealed Maidstone council knew about the testing blitz on Friday after a case of the South African Covid-19 variant was found in the ME15 area of the town.

Cllr Marin Cox, head of Maidstone council, criticises Matt Hancock

News of Operation Barton - which will see members of the police, fire service, search and rescue and volunteers deliver 10,000 PCR tests to homes in part of ME15 - was embargoed until 1pm yesterday, Cllr Martin Cox (Lib Dem) revealed.

But at midday the story began breaking in Surrey leading to initial confusion about how many cases had been detected and where. It turned out there had been 11 potentially community transmitted cases of the South African variant found in eight parts of the country.

It has since been suggested the 11 cases are not new, and some were found as far back as December, while more than 40 more have been found in Bristol and Liverpool.

To add to the confusion Maidstone council was initially told only people aged 18 and over would be tested, but the government yesterday announced it would be anyone aged 16 and over.

Maidstone council was left to decide on the postcodes themselves, which includes a small number in ME16 and ME17.

Door-to-door testing will take place from 2pm today and could take up to five days, according the one volunteer.

They have also been told nothing about any 'further lockdown' for the town, but last night Mr Hancock announced everyone in all of ME15 should "stay at home and await a test" prompting councillors phones to ring off the hook as worried residents called them for clarification.

The Department of Health announced this morning Mr Hancock was simply stressing the importance of pre-existing lockdown rules and not imposing any additional measures, shops would remain open and essential workers would be able to go in.

Cllr Cox said: "We were first contacted on Friday. They asked us to perform 10,000 door-to-door tests, giving a PCR test to members of the public in a specific set of post code areas.

"There was quite a lot of confusion yesterday when ME15 was mentioned by Matt Hancock who said if you're in those areas you should shut down and not go anywhere, not go out at all.

"Well I didn't think that's what we were briefed to ask. We have been asked to test 10,000 addresses or get 10,000 tests done. It couldn't involve the whole of ME15 because that's somewhere around 25,000 people."

He said the government had delayed on releasing the news about the surge testing to the public.

He added: "When anybody says things like surge testing then people get worried, and I think somebody walking down a path or up a drive in full PPE kit then knocking on a door in going to cause anguish and people will be frightened and concerned.

"We were ready to give the information as best we can but it was delayed and delayed by central government and then when were told it was embargoed until 1pm yesterday. However, he said, Surrey published information about surge testing in their area an hour before that.

"We need to encourage people higher up than us to make sure they give us as much time as they can to deliver what they requested."

He also urged as many people as possible to head to the asymptomatic testing sites at County Hall in Maidstone and the events centre at Detling, saying that the more tests carried out the better.

The 10,000 figure is simply the government requirement needed to establish how widespread, if at all, the new variant is.

Cllr cox explains what to expect if you're on the door-to-door list

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