Cases of the COVID variant first detected in India have more than doubled in the UK over the past week, according to new data.
According to England’s Public Health Service, infections with the variant rose to 6,959 from last week, an increase of 3,535 from seven days ago.
At a press conference on Thursday, British Health Minister Matt Hancock confirmed the trend.
Up to 75% of all new COVID-19 cases in the UK, he said, have been linked to variant B.1.617.2.
The increase comes at a time when the British Government has tried to intensify testing in the areas most affected by the variant.
However, the spread of the Indian variant has raised new concerns about whether the British government will be able to go ahead with its plans to lift all lockdown restrictions in England on June 21.
On Thursday, Hancock told MPs it was “too early to say” whether the lockdown restrictions would be lifted entirely next month.
“This is not over yet,” he told reporters at his subsequent press conference, assuring that the increase in cases of the Indian variant “shows it.”
As Hancock urged patience, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared to offer mixed messages on whether the rise of the Indian variant could hamper plans to fully relax restrictions.
“I don’t see anything currently in the data to suggest that we have to deviate from the roadmap, but we may have to wait,” he said Thursday.
Ultimately, both Hancock and Johnson have stressed that the best the British can do to combat the spread of the coronavirus is to get fully vaccinated.
The recent rise in cases of the variant has already seen restrictions on British travel being imposed, and France introducing a mandatory quarantine for people entering the country from the UK.
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