Covid-19 cases in an area of Maidstone where door step testing was carried out have increased by 244%.

In the seven days leading to February 4, 31 cases were reported in the Loose and Coxheath area, which was up by 22 cases from the previous seven days.

This equates to 244%.

Door-to-door coronavirus testing started in parts of Maidstone on February 2, and 9,633 kits were delivered to residents by a team from Kent Police, Kent Search and Rescue, Kent Fire and Rescue Service and Kent County Council (KCC).

The urgent large-scale testing operation came after a resident tested positive for the South African variant of Covid-19.

Named Operation Barton, the object was to determine whether there were any other cases of the variant and tests were carried out in the ME15 area, and ME16 and ME17.

Tovil, where they also carried out testing, also saw an increase in cases.

In the seven days leading to February 4, 47 cases were reported, a rise of 30%.

All data is taken from the government's website.

KCC have yet to reveal how many tests carried out during Operation Barton came back positive.

But the operation was completed by February 5, and some 84% of the test kits were returned at the doorstep.

Kent Search and Rescue's operations officer, Stewart Baird, previously said: “On behalf of all the emergency services involved in this operation, we would like to offer our thanks to the residents of ME15 for their support and co-operation."

Overall in Maidstone however, cases have gone down. In the seven days leading to February 4, a total of 345 cases were reported. This is down 58 cases from the previous week.

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