Indian Covid mutation declared variant of concern over fears of rapid spread
The government will likely roll out surge testing in areas where the strain has been detected (Getty Images)
A coronavirus strain first detected in India has been declared a “variant of concern” over fears that it may be spreading more quickly than the dominant Kent strain.
Public Health England (PHE) said it had “moderate confidence” that the Indian mutation, known officially as B16172, spreads at least as quickly as the strain first found in Kent last year.
It means areas with cases of the mutation will likely be subjected to surge testing and other more stringent measures to curb transmission.
Queen Mary University of London
Ed Stubbs is a secondary school teacher at Morpeth School in Tower Hamlets, east London, local to Queen Mary University of London. He wanted to create an educational programme after becoming concerned at a growing sense of fear among his students toward vaccinations, fuelled by misinformation and certain conspiracy theories.
He approached Daniel Pennington, Professor of Molecular Immunology at Queen Mary’s Blizard Institute, and together they worked on a series of classroom resources aimed at local students to address their questions and concerns around the COVID-19 vaccine, and to provide reliable and scientifically based information about the nature and use of vaccines in general.
Indian Covid variant is now officially of concern and is at least as infectious as dominant Kent type: Cases DOUBLE in a week to 520 with hotspots in London and Bolton - as Boris Johnson promises absolutely ruthless tracking of mutant virus
Public Health England says there is no evidence the variant causes more severe disease or can evade jabs
Enhanced contact tracing and surge and community testing will be introduced to contain variant clusters
Cases of the mutant coronavirus have been found in schools and care homes in London and the North East
The strain – B1617.2 – is one of three related variants first seen in India which have been detected in the UK and designated “under investigation” by PHE.
The others are B1617.1 and B1617.3.
According to Channel 4 News, there have been at least 48 clusters of B1617.2, although overall numbers remain small.
PHE said updates on the number of cases due to be released on Thursday have been delayed due to “processing issues”.
According to the most recent data by PHE, there have been 193 confirmed cases of the B1617.1 variant, up by 61 since the last update on April 21.
The first report on the B1617.2 variant shows 202 cases, and the first report on the B1617.3 variant shows just five cases.