Delta variant may delay Britain’s unlock process Italy limits AZ vax to over-60s

London, June 12: The UK government is considering a delay of up to four weeks from the scheduled June 21 end to all lockdown restrictions amid a continuing rise in cases of the Delta variant of Covid-19, according to a media report on Saturday. It comes as the country reported 8,125 new Covid-19 cases in a 24-hour period, another record daily high since the end of February, and Public Health England (PHE) found that infections from the Delta variant — the B1.617.2 variant of concern (VOC) first identified in India – rose by nearly 30,000 in a week to hit 42,323.

Downing Street sources said that no final decision has been made yet and that several options are being evaluated as the latest data is studied before UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a scheduled announcement regarding lockdown on Monday. The British Medical Association (BMA) is among some of the leading public healthcare groups and officials calling for a delay to the planned easing of all lockdown restrictions on June 21, dubbed “Freedom Day” as it would see all legal limits on social contact removed. Pushing the date back by a few weeks is intended to allow the country’s vaccination programme to take greater effect, as the rollout moves through to younger age groups and the older age groups get covered with their

Rome, June 12: Italy said Saturday it would restrict the AstraZeneca vaccine to the over-60s, with younger people who have already received one dose to complete the cycle with an mRNA jab.

The change follows an improvement in Coronavirus infection rates in Italy, which has been devastated by the pandemic but will next week lift restrictions in much of the country following a sharp decline in cases.

The EU’s medicine agency in April drew a link between rare blood clots and AstraZeneca jabs but stressed that the benefits of the vaccines outweighed the risks.

“The changed epidemiological situation has led to a reassessment of the risk-benefit ratio for age groups less at risk of severe forms of Covid-19,” the Italian government’s Technical and Scientific Committee (CTS) said.