More potent Covid strain found in Sri Lanka
Island nation’s top immunologist says the newly-discovered variant can remain airborne for an hour
COLOMBO/LONDON: A new coronavirus strain that is likely to be airborne and possibly more potent than the variants found previously in Sri Lanka has been discovered in the island nation, according to a top Lankan immunologist.
The variant, which is highly transmissible, can remain airborne for nearly an hour and is spreading fast, said Neelika Malavige, the head of the department of immunology and molecular sciences of Sri Jayawardenapura
University.
“This variant of coronavirus is more highly transmissible than all found so far on the island. The new strain is airborne. The droplets can remain airborne for nearly an hour,” Malavige said.
Health authorities feared that the new variant is spreading rapidly after last week’s New Year celebrations with more younger people getting infected.
“In the next two incubation periods, the disease can progress to a third wave,” Upul Rohana of Public Health Inspectors said, adding that the real situation would emerge in the coming two to three weeks.
Meanwhile, the country’s Covid-19 prevention administration issued new guidelines that would remain in force until May 31. The guidelines dictate a 50% capacity operation for most institutions with all forms of revelry being banned.
The countrywide new daily cases that hovered around 150 before the mid-april New Year celebrations have now lately up to over 600 a day.
Boris under pressure for ‘bodies pile high’ remark
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced calls to resign on Monday over claims that he made an objectionable remark about thousands dying from Covid-19 in a debate over the need for another lockdown.
In a front-page headline, The Daily Mail newspaper reported that Johnson had said he would rather see “bodies pile high in their thousands” than impose a third Covid-19 lockdown.
Johnson did eventually order a new round of restrictions in January, just short of a hard lockdown.
He is now locked in a damaging war of words with his former aide Dominic Cummings over his Covid-19 policies last year and his financial dealings.
Defence secretary Ben Wallace said the Daily Mail report, based on unnamed sources, was “not true” and had been “categorically denied by practically everyone”.
“None of this is serious. The prime minister has been utterly focused on delivering, alongside cabinet colleagues, the response to Covid,” Wallace told Sky News.
The main opposition Labour Party wants an urgent inquiry into Cummings’ claims made in an explosive blog post.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) was more critical of the British prime minister. “These comments are utterly abhorrent. If they are true, @Borisjohnson has a duty to resign,” SNP leader in the UK parliament Ian Blackford tweeted.