Further case of India variant discovered
A further case of the Covid-19 variant first identified in India has been found in Scotland, bringing the total to five.
It comes after four cases of thenewvariantwerefoundin Scotland last week, among a total of 103 across the UK.
Otherwise known as B1617, it has been labelled a “variant under investigation” rather than the more serious “variant of concern”.
Chiefmedicalofficergregor Smith said he is more worried about the “South Africa” variant, which has become embeddedinmuchofeurope andofwhichtherearenow32 cases in Scotland.
“If I’m honest, although we're keeping an eye on this Indianvariant,1617,it’snotthe one which I think is of most concern globally,” he told a media briefing on Thursday.
"Ithinkparticularlyforusin the UK, the one which we are looking at particularly closely is the South African variant, 1351, which is now seeded widely across continental Europe and Western Europe.
“We continue to ensure that if there are any cases of those which we have identified that we respond quickly to those.”
He added: “Of the designatedvariantsofconcernthatare active globally just now, that's the one that certainly I'm keeping the closest eye on, in terms of how it’s changing in its numbers.”
National Clinical Director Jason Leitch said he is more worried about the situation in India than the cases of variant which have made it to Scotland.
India is struggling to cope with a huge surge in cases which has overwhelmed health services.