A CASE of the Indian variant of coronavirus has been confirmed in Southend.

Public health bosses confirmed this morning there has been one case of the Indian variant in the town.

This comes after the Echo revealed earlier this week, there were two suspected cases of the new variant in Southend.

Public health teams are dealing with three suspected cases of the variant.

Krishna Ramkhelawon, director for public health, told the Echo there was "no cause for concern."

It also emerged this week how Southend and Thurrock Councils received incomplete Covid test data from England's Test and Trace system - which was partly responsible for a surge in the Indian variant.

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Krishna Ramkhelawon, director for public health, said: "Although there was a delay in receiving some data, we can confirm that none of the delayed information related to these cases were a variant of concern.

“We have been responding to three suspected and one confirmed cases of the Indian variant in Southend through working closely with Public Health England and our own local tracing service.

"These people have been self-isolating and our contact tracing have concluded that these have all been contained.

“We are awaiting confirmation from the genome sequencing for the three suspected cases, and there is no further action that local people need to take, other than to continue following the usual public health measures in place.

“Whilst there is no immediate action required by members of the public and this should not cause alarm, it is a good reminder that the virus is still with us and so we continue to ask people not to drop their guard, to get tested regularly, get vaccinated and continue to practice good public health measures to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus.”