UK races to test, vaccinate as B.1.167 variant spreads

LONDON/FRANKFURT: Britain deployed public health officials, supported by the army, to distribute coronavirus tests doorto-door in two northern England towns on Saturday in an effort to contain a fast-spreading variant that threatens plans to lift all lockdown restrictions next month. Cases of a strain first detected in India have more than doubled in a week, defying a sharp nationwide downward trend in infections won by months of restrictions and a rapid vaccination campaign.

The government’s Scientific Group for Emergencies (SAGE) says the variant detected in India, formally known as B.1.617.2, could be up to 50% more transmissible than one first recorded in southeast England last year that is now the UK’s dominant strain. But they say there is a high level of uncertainty about the exact figure.

“If the virus is significantly more transmissible, we are likely to face some hard choices,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday. “I have to level with you that this could be a serious disruption to our progress.”

He said the next stage of lockdown-easing measures would take place as planned on Monday, but warned the variant might delay plans to lift all restrictions, including social distancing and face-covering rules, on June 21.

More than two-thirds of British adults have received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and 37% have had both doses.

The government is shortening the gap between doses for people over 50 from 12 to eight weeks in a bid to give them more protection. Meanwhile, Germany’s health agency has reclassified Britain as a coronavirus “risk area” over concerns about the spread of the variant detected in India, but travellers will still be able to avoid quarantine under updated rules.