Concerns about the Indian variant of the Covid-19 virus are growing in the UK / Article

There are growing concerns in the UK about the spread of the Covid-19 variant, which was first found in India. Officials have said the time between vaccinations could be reduced to help combat it.

For the time being, officials hope that due to the spread of this type, it will not be necessary to plan the phasing out of the current restrictions.

To date, the successful fight against Covid-19 in the UK, where more than half of the population has already received at least one dose of the vaccine, is threatened by the new, Proliferation of the Indian variant.

This is already found in most regions of England.

“There are concerns that in cities like Bolton, Forbie and, of course, parts of London, this new variant, first identified in India, is even more contagious. We have seen an increase in infections from 520 last week to 1,313 this week, ”said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

“Therefore, the scope of testing and clarification of contact persons is increased. We have sent 800,000 tests to 15 parts of England. At the same time, we believe that the plans to continue the opening of the country next Monday remain valid, because vaccination continues and vaccines help people not get to hospitals and get seriously ill, “said Johnson.

There is not yet enough information to judge whether the Indian option could reduce the effectiveness of the vaccines.

At the same time, officials are considering reducing the time between vaccinations with Astra Zeneca, which is widely used in the country, to speed up the second vaccination.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has emphasized that the situation is worrying. However, at least for the time being, the British government is not revising its plans to gradually open the country, lifting the last major restrictions on June 21.

“By the end of May, you will hear a lot more about what everything will look like on June 21. Now we have to wait a bit and look at what the data shows. But as I said, I am cautiously optimistic. If this Indian variant does not start to spread very fast, as some people fear, I think that soon everything will be much closer to normal, “said Nadim Zahavi, the British Minister for Vaccination.

The total number of cases across the UK since the beginning of the month has not exceeded three thousand cases a day. This is a significant drop compared to mid-January, when the figure exceeded sixty thousand. The number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals in the UK currently fluctuates around one thousand.

CONTEXT:

Public health experts have recommended classifying one version of the Indian variant of Covid-19 found in the UK as a “worrying variant”. Experts tracking this Indian variant subtype have come to the conclusion that it is likely to spread faster in the UKthan other variants of the Indian variant. According to scientists, the Indian variant subtype is more contagious than the original variant of Wuhan virus.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization reported that early studies showthat antibodies in laboratory studies had less effect on this type of Indian Covid-19. However, the World Health Organization insisted that it was too early to interpret this information in such a way that it could be more resistant to vaccine protection.

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