Cases of Indian variant double

THE number of cases of the Indian coronavirus variant of concern has more than doubled in the past week in Wales.

There are three variants first spotted in India that have been circulating in Wales – two are classified as variants of interest, but the third, which is causing experts to express fears about lockdown easing, is classified as a variant of concern.

Last week, there were 11 cases of the variant of concern, called VOC-21APR-02, but this has now leapt to 25, latest figures reveal.

Wales has also seen its first case of one of the other variants.

The latest data from Public Health Wales, up to date as of Tuesday, shows:

■ There are now 25 cases of the VOC-21APR-02 variant – up from 11 previously).

■ There are 15 cases of VUI-21APR-01 – that figure remains unchanged.

■ There has also one cases of VUI-21APR-03 which had previously not been detected in Wales.

■ This bring the total number of cases in Wales up to 41, compared to 27 last week.

Incident director for the coronavirus response at Public Health Wales Dr Giri Shankar said that most cases were releated to international travel.

“There are currently 25 cases of the coronavirus variant VOC-21APR-02 in Wales,” he said. “Including other lineages of the B.1.617 variants under investigation (VOI-21APR-01 x 15 cases and VOC-21APR-03 x 1 case) there are a total of 41 cases of variants first identified in India.

“The majority of these cases are associated with travel or with known contacts, and robust contact tracing processes are in place.

“The emergence of another transmissible new variant is a reminder that we should not become complacent, even as rates of the Coronavirus across Wales remain low.”

The numbers in Wales are far smaller than in England, where there have been 1,255 cases of the concerning variant recorded so far. Scotland has had 35 and Northern Ireland 12.

Wales’ next easing is planned for June 7 when the nation could go to Alert Level One.

Public Health Wales has declined to reveal the location(s) of the Indian variant in Wales because the agency claims it could risk identifying individuals.

This is a different policy to that in February when PHW revealed where the cases of the South Africa variant were, despite there being only 17 cases at the time.