Indian variant fears
» Cases up by 1,200 in week » PM faces grilling at inquiry
CASES of the Indian Covid-19 variant have more than tripled in a week, raising fears that the final stage out of lockdown, due to start on June 21, will be delayed.
Figures are today expected to confirm a rise from 520 to 1,723 cases.
A member of the scientific advisory committee Sage was reported in The i newspaper as saying a “delay is possible” to the final lockdown easing.
PM Boris Johnson yesterday announced that an independent inquiry into his government’s handling of the pandemic will start next spring.
The Prime Minister may be forced to give evidence under oath and the Government made to hand over documents, texts and emails. Mr Johnson yesterday warned that the UK faced “the persistent threat of new variants”.
He added: “Should these prove highly transmissible and elude the protection of our vaccines, they would have the potential to cause even greater suffering than we endured in January.”
The Indian variant is now said to be dominant in four local authorities in England, focused on Bolton and its neighbour Blackburn with Darwen, where outbreaks have grown by 93% and 86% in just one week. Labour MP Yvette Cooper posted: “Delays in putting India on red list, gaps in previous home quarantine enforcement and testing – serious questions why the border policy has failed to prevent this spread.”
The Mirror this week reported that scientists had warned the Indian or South African Covid-19 variants could become dominant in the UK.
Surge testing was yesterday deployed in Redditch, Worcs, after “multiple” cases of the South African variant. The Covid-19 inquiry was welcomed by Jo Goodman, of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, but she said: “Spring 2022 is simply too late.” Labour leader Keir Starmer also questioned why the inquiry could not start later this year. Mr Johnson defended the timing, saying he did not want to “inadvertently distract” NHS chiefs and advisers who could still be dealing with the pandemic A World Health Organisation report has admitted that it should have declared a global emergency earlier.