Thousands of residents have queued up to take coronavirus tests at additional facilities set up after new cases of the South African variant were found in two south London boroughs.

Wandsworth Council said the testing operation is a “mammoth task” but urged all adults in the area to get tested even if they do not have any symptoms.

A steady stream of people joined the lines at pop-up centres on Clapham Common and in Brockwell Park near Brixton on Wednesday morning.

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Marshals said they had warned on Tuesday afternoon that waiting times could be up to two hours and were forced to stop people joining the queue early.

Some 44 confirmed cases of the variant have been found in Lambeth and Wandsworth, with a further 30 probable cases identified, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.

Facilities offering asymptomatic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing have now been deployed at Wandsworth Town Hall, Tooting Leisure Centre and the University of Roehampton, as well as Lambeth Town Hall and Brockwell Park.

People aged 11 and over who live, work or travel through those areas are being urged to take a Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, on top of twice-weekly rapid testing.

Additional testing is also being implemented by NHS Test and Trace in an area of Southwark, where a case linked to another cluster has been identified.

A spokesman for Wandsworth Council said further testing sites will be opened during the week.

“People are desperate to get checked,” he said.

“We’re in the process of testing around 320,000 people and that will take some time – it’s a mammoth task.

“We are doing everything we can to find new additional locations where people can get tested.”

Home-testing kits are also available for collection by residents at multiple sites.

Louisa Wells, 34, from Camberwell, said the process of queuing and testing in Brockwell Park had taken her around an hour.

“I saw they were surge testing in the area, and they wanted everyone to get a test, so I did what I was told,” she told the PA news agency.

“I’m not particularly concerned (about the new variant) but obviously any extension of this is concerning.”

Another woman, who lives and works in Lambeth, said she is taking “every possible precaution to protect her family… and colleagues” following the announcement of more cases of the variant.

Downing Street has insisted the outbreak is being taken “very seriously” and “strong measures” have been put in place to prevent it spreading.

The BBC reported that the outbreak appears to have been triggered by an individual who travelled from Africa in February.

According to documents seen by the broadcaster, the country involved was not on the red list for mandatory hotel quarantine at that time, but is now.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Professor Anthony Harnden, deputy chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), urged people not to “go wild” after restrictions were eased on Monday, warning it could lead to the South African variant becoming more prevalent.