It is understood that an urgent Sage meeting is taking place today
The prime minister raised concerns over a spike in cases of the variant first detected in India
Two weeks ago, 202 cases of the variant were identified across the UK. Those figures doubled to 520 last week.New figures from the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium, which tracks and identifies new variants, has since reportedly recorded 1,723 cases.A Sage member told the paper that although the next stage of easing lockdown restrictions will go ahead on Monday, a ‘delay is possible’ to the fourth and final step planned for June 21.
Prof Hunter said this was the largest week-on-week increase since early January and suggested the new variant could be behind it.: ‘There has been a lot of debate about when and if a further wave of infection will happen in the UK. The reports today suggest that this wave may have already begun. Bolton Council’s director of public health, Dr Helen Lowey, said: ‘There is no evidence these variants cause more severe illness, there is some evidence that the Indian variant spreads more easily than other Covid-19 variants so it is the one that we want to stop and contain.
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