Indian variant of coronavirus ‘dominates’ in various parts of the UK

The so-called Indian variant of the coronavirus has become the mutation “dominant” of the virus in some parts of the UK, as Jenny Harries, the CEO of the British Health Security Agency, said on Sunday.

Speaking to the BBC, the expert said that the country currently presents “An image a bit mixed”, where in areas like Bolton and Bedfrod in the northwest, “(That mutation) is beginning to become the dominant one and has overtaken that of Kent, which had been the dominant variant during the winter months.”

Harries believes that it is feasible that the government can lift all restrictions on June 21 – the date foreseen in the “Roadmap” that the Executive follows to carry out the de-escalation – but he urged the “caution” in order to avoid re-confinement.

For his part, in statements to the same channel, Professor Adam Finn, of the Joint Commission on Vaccination and Immunization of the UK, noted that scientists believe that the aforementioned indian variant is “to a certain extent more transmissible” than the others, although it is not yet certain “exactly how much more”.

Finn admitted that this mutation has placed the country “slightly worse off than we were before, but it’s not a disaster.”

He also stressed the importance of citizens getting vaccinated “to phase out the proportion of the population that remains susceptible” and added that “We can be confident that immunity will continue to some extent even if the virus evolves.”

His words come as a new study by the public health body Public Health England (PHE) revealed that Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are highly effective against this emerging Indian variant at 88 and 60% respectively after the second dose.

According to data released yesterday by NHS England, 31,546,846 adults from UK have already received their first dose and 18,699,556 have received both, while the health services are inviting since this weekend to immunize people between the ages of 32 and 33 in England.

According to these data, between December 8, 2020 and May 21, a total of 50,246,402 people were vaccinated, either with the first dose or both.