Hammersmith & Fulham Council Advises Not Travelling to Hounslow
Updated guidance appears to include trips to Chiswick
Sign marking the border with Hounslow borough at King Street. Picture: Google Streetview
Hammersmith and Fulham Council will advise residents not to travel to Hounslow in light of concerns about the Indian variant of Covid-19.
It has also revealed that surge testing and vaccinating will be deployed in the borough later this week to help safeguard vulnerable residents.
It comes after the Government updated its website to advise the public not to travel in and out of areas, such as Hounslow, where the so-called Indian variant is causing high infection rates.
Hounslow, which borders Hammersmith and Fulham (H&F), is the only London borough to be included in a list of areas where travel is discouraged.
Other areas of the country include: Bedford, Blackburn and Darwen, Bolton, Burnley, Kirklees, Leicester and North Tyneside.
Hounslow’s infection rate for the week leading up to May 20 – the most recent figures available – was 50.1 cases per 100,000 people.
It is understood that its cases are concentrated in the West of the borough, which includes Heathrow airport.
H&F’s infection rate for the week up to May 20 was 22.1 cases per 100,000 people.
In neighbouring Ealing it was 41.8 per 100,000.
A H&F spokesperson also said that it will deploy surge testing later this week in areas of the borough where there has been a low take up of Covid vaccines.
This will include “pop up vaccination centres” centres in specific areas, which have yet to be confirmed.
The spokesperson said H&F’s website will be updated to reflect the Government’s new travel advice later today (May 25).
Owen Sheppard - Local Democracy Reporter
May 25, 2021