Coronavirus news UK – Indian variant cases double as jabs ‘work against’ it and lockdown set to be lifted next week
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ENGLAND is still on course to lift the last of the lockdown restrictions despite cases of the Indian variant more than doubling in a week.
Boris Johnson admitted he was anxious at the surge in the number of people struck down by the super-infectious strain.
But the PM is still expected to allow Brits to reclaim its long-awaited freedoms on time.
Pubs and restaurants can finally reopen indoors, while family and friends will be able to hug for the first time in more than a year.
Meanwhile, Covid vaccines appear to work against the Indian variant - after jabbed care home workers in Delhi got infected but none died.
In promising reports from India, 33 people who had been given the AstraZeneca jab caught Covid but didn't become seriously ill or die from the virus.
It is unclear how the Indian variant reacts to vaccines, but this suggests the mutated virus won't cause high numbers of hospitalisation or death in protected people.
Pfizer thinks its vaccine will also work against the variant - but there is no real-world evidence on any large studies for any vaccines yet.
Read our coronavirus live blog below for the latest updates...
MINISTER JAMES CLEVERLY SAYS JUNE 21 LOCKDOWN DECISION WILL BE DRIVEN BY DATA AMID CONCERN OVER COVID VARIANTS
Minister James Cleverly says June 21 lockdown decision will be driven by data amid concern over Covid variantsBRITISH AIRWAYS TRIALS 'GAME-CHANGER' 25-SECOND CORONAVIRUS TEST
British Airways will be the world's first airline to trial a coronavirus test which produces results within 25 seconds.
The carrier said it will invite flight and cabin crew to take a Pelican Covid-19 antigen test from medical tech company Canary Global.
Results will be compared against their standard test results.
British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle said the airline is "committed to exploring easy and affordable testing solutions to help our customers travel again".
He went on: "We think this new ultra-rapid test is a game-changer so we are delighted to work with the team at Canary to begin initial trials with our flight and cabin crew, before exploring what role it could play as a customer testing option."
GRAPHIC: UK COVID-19 CASES AND DEATHS PER DAY
BORIS JOHNSON WARNS NEW COVID VARIANTS POSE ‘LETHAL DANGER’
BORIS Johnson has warned new variants post a “lethal danger” and could spark the worst Covid wave yet.
It includes the Indian strain which the PM said is “something we are increasingly concerned about in the UK”.He said “the end of the lockdown is not the end of the pandemic”.
“The World Health Organisation has said that the pandemic has now reached its global peak and will last throughout this year,” Mr Johnson told the Commons today.
“Our own scientific advisers judge that although more positive data is coming in and the outlook is improving, there could still be another resurgence in hospitalisations and deaths.
“We also face the persistent threat of new variants and 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.”
WORK FROM HOME ORDER SHOULD LIFT AFTER JUNE 21, BORIS JOHNSON SAYS
BRITAIN’S national work from home order should lift after June 21, Boris Johnson said today.
The PM has told everyone to continue to work from home if they can for the meantime, but has stressed we will be back in the office soon. He wants to lift all Covid rules after June 21, and the PM confirmed today it’s his “intention” to rip up that rule too.
Speaking about the return of workers to offices around the country, he said: “I think it’ll come back remarkably quickly, but it does depend on keeping the virus down.”
Replying to a question from a Tory MP in the Commons, he said London and other cities “depend on people having the confidence on going to work”.
It will likely see millions of Brits return to their offices and come back to their desks after more than 14 months working from their living rooms and kitchen tables.
DAILY TOLL
Coronavirus deaths have yesterday increased by 11 amid fears that the spread of the Indian variant could scupper the government’s roadmap out of lockdown.
The number of cases has increased by 2,284 – bringing the total to 4,441,975.
The increase in fatalities brings the total to 127,640.
It is the same figure as last week’s toll of 11 – but below the 14 deaths reported a fortnight ago.
Meanwhile, cases are down slightly on last Wednesday’s figure of 2,511 – and also below the 2,510 infections recorded a fortnight ago.
ONTHEBEACH TO STOP SELLING HOLIDAYS UNTIL END OF SUMMER
Online giant OnTheBeach will not sell any further holidays until the end of summer, but will honour bookings already made before May 12.
Boss Simon Cooper said: “There’s nothing we want more than to be able to send customers on holiday, but with the current number of unknowns we don’t think that now is the right time for customers to book new holidays departing in the next few months.
“We don’t know enough yet about how the traffic light system will work in practice, and it doesn’t currently give any certainty or clarity.
“There is likelihood of disruption or even cancellations for the many customers who want to book more than three weeks in advance.
“Given this, there is too much uncertainty for us to take new bookings with confidence that they will go ahead. As a result, we have taken the decision to stop selling holidays for this summer until customers have greater clarity and can make more informed booking decisions.”
BACK TO THE BAR
Covid cases plummeted by 50 per cent in England despite lockdown easing and pubs reopening their doors, a study found.
Despite people mingling more infections fell between mid April to early May.
Britain’s biggest virus infection survey found pubs and restaurants opening up on April 12 had not had an impact when they carried out their tests.
The React study, headed up by the team at Imperial College London (ICL) found that rates of positivity of the virus also fell in older age groups.
The experts stated that infections may have continued to fall due to the vaccination programme – which has so far seen 35.7 million Brits having had a first dose, and 18.4 million having had a second.
GOVERNMENT HAS LEARNT LESSONS DURING PANDEMIC, SAYS MINISTER
The Government has learnt lessons throughout the pandemic, according to Foreign Office minister James Cleverly.
When asked about the inquiry, which is due to take place in spring 2022, and if mistakes had been made during the crisis, he told BBC Breakfast: "We should remember this was an unprecedented pandemic.
"Governments around the world, of course including our own, made decisions often based on limited information, in a situation that was changing, evolving, incredibly quickly.
"No one is pretending that every decision was perfect, that's not possible when you are making decisions with an incomplete information picture as we had to, as all governments had to.
"We have been learning lessons, both as a Government and scientific community, as the battle against this pandemic has been conducted."
INDIAN VARIANT SHOULD BE VIEWED AS A 'COUNTRY-WIDE' PROBLEM, EXPERT CLAIMS
The spread of the so-called Indian variant of Covid-19 should be viewed as a country-wide problem, an expert has warned.
Professor James Naismith, from the University of Oxford, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday, that the variant may spread "way beyond" the local areas where it has been detected.
Prof Naismith, who is also a director at the Rosalind Franklin Institute, said: "I think we should view it as a country-wide problem.
"It will get everywhere. We keep learning this lesson, but we know that this will be the case."
Prof Naismith said he did not believe local restrictions would work to contain the variant.
He added: "When we tried locally having different restrictions in different regions that didn't really make any difference. So I don't think thinking about a localised strategy for containment will really work."
'NO DISCUSSIONS' ON IMMUNISING TEENAGERS OR YOUNG CHILDREN, SAYS PROFESSOR
Professor Adam Finn said there have not yet been any discussions about vaccinating teenagers and younger children.
He told BBC Breakfast: "We've not really had any discussions yet about immunising teenagers or indeed younger children.
"We don't have any vaccines authorised for that those age groups at the moment.
"But I think it's also an open question as to whether or not we really will need to do that at this point, and, in fact, what we were just discussing about coverage in the adult population is a big determinant of that, so if we can get really good coverage, and a high uptake in the adult population, like Israel, we may find that you see a disappearance, if you like, of Covid throughout the whole population, even without immunising children.
"So that's yet to be discussed, and it may prove necessary, particularly for teenagers, but it's not clear that that will be necessary at this point in time."
MASKS CAN BE RIPPED OFF IN SHOPS AND OFFICES AND SOCIAL DISTANCING WILL BE DITCHED ON 21 JUNE IN CURRENT PLANS
Masks can be ripped off in shops and offices and social distancing will be ditched on 21 June in current plansMUTANT HUNT
People living in Worcestershire are being urged to take a Covid-19 test to catch cases of the South African variant.
NHS Test and Trace is providing additional testing and genomic sequencing targeted in certain areas in Redditch, Worcestershire.
Multiple cases of the variant have been tracked down and their contacts have been identified.
People who live or work in the targeted areas have been strongly encouraged to take a COVID-19 PCR test, whether they are showing symptoms or not.
You can find out if your postcode is included on the Worcestershire council website.
MAP REVEALS FOUR NEW HOTSPOTS WHERE INDIAN COVID CASES HAVE SOARED
This map reveals where the Indian Covid variant hotspots are.
Official data shows that in four regions, the strain is the most dominant circulating.
Called B.1.617.2, it is thought to be even more transmissible than the Kent strain, and could soon overthrow it.
Bolton is the UK’s current epicentre, where 47 positive Covid tests were caused by the Indian variant in the week to April 24.
It made up more than 55 per cent of all Covid cases in those seven days.
More on the story here.
GREAT BRITISH MASK OFF
Wearing masks in shops and offices will be relaxed on June 21.
Social distancing will end in another huge lift for fed-up Brits. Boffins are on board with the plans by the National Economy Recovery Taskforce.
Boris Johnson also aims to scrap the work-from-home order.
An insider said: “The current thinking points to social distancing going and mask wearing only in limited settings like buses, trains and the Tube.
More on the story here.
WARNING LIGHT
Travel plans that allow Brits abroad will let new variants into the UK, experts have warned.
The pandemic is still raging on in the rest of the world, but the Government is set to give the green light for visits to more countries.
From May 17, the “stay in the UK” restriction will lift and overseas holidays will be possible, albeit with rules.
People will be able to travel to “green list” countries including Portugal, Iceland and Israel without having to quarantine, provided they take one post-arrival test.
And more countries could join the list in June if their vaccine programmes go well and infections come down, including Fiji, the Cayman Islands, Grenada, Finland and Malta.
HOLIDAY HALT
The UK’s third largest holiday company has suspended all new holiday bookings until August 31 because of growing uncertainty on international travel and confusion over the Government’s traffic light system.
Online giant OnTheBeach will not sell any further holidays until the end of summer, but will honour bookings already made before May 12.
Boss Simon Cooper said: “There’s nothing we want more than to be able to send customers on holiday, but with the current number of unknowns we don’t think that now is the right time for customers to book new holidays departing in the next few months.
“We don’t know enough yet about how the traffic light system will work in practice, and it doesn’t currently give any certainty or clarity.
“There is likelihood of disruption or even cancellations for the many customers who want to book more than three weeks in advance.
“Given this, there is too much uncertainty for us to take new bookings with confidence that they will go ahead.
“As a result, we have taken the decision to stop selling holidays for this summer until customers have greater clarity and can make more informed booking decisions.”
BACK TO THE BAR
Covid cases plummeted by 50 per cent in England despite lockdown easing and pubs reopening their doors, a study found.
Despite people mingling more infections fell between mid April to early May.
Britain’s biggest virus infection survey found pubs and restaurants opening up on April 12 had not had an impact when they carried out their tests.
The React study, headed up by the team at Imperial College London (ICL) found that rates of positivity of the virus also fell in older age groups.
The experts stated that infections may have continued to fall due to the vaccination programme - which has so far seen 35.7 million Brits having had a first dose, and 18.4 million having had a second.
VACCINE TARGET
WE’RE SO CLOSE
The head of the NHS has told The Sun “much brighter days” are now within reach thanks to the Covid vaccination blitz.
Sir Simon Stevens said there are just 142 coronavirus patients now in intensive care in England — 30 times fewer than in France and down from 3,700 three months ago.
The NHS supremo thanked our brilliant Jabs Army for helping to bring a “faster than expected” end to the crisis after clocking up more than 60,000 shifts.
And with social distancing and having to wear masks on the verge of being scrapped next month, Sir Simon said the darkest days of the pandemic are now behind us.
The Sun can also reveal millions of Brits will be given life-saving health checks this autumn alongside their Covid booster jabs.
GREAT BRITISH MASK OFF
Wearing masks in shops and offices will be relaxed on June 21.
Social distancing will end in another huge lift for fed-up Brits. Boffins are on board with the plans by the National Economy Recovery Taskforce.
Boris Johnson also aims to scrap the work-from-home order.
An insider said: “The current thinking points to social distancing going and mask wearing only in limited settings like buses, trains and the Tube.
More on the story here.
COVID VACCINE ROLL-OUT
JABS UP
Millions more Brits will be eligible for a Covid vaccine from today.
The age limit has dropped once again, and now people aged 38 and 39 in England will be able to book their jab.
They will be able to arrange their appointment this morning.
The NHS said around a million people will be sent text messages from "NHSvaccine" with further invitations to follow in the coming days and weeks.
It will include a link to the NHS website to reserve an appointment. People can also call the service on 119.
CORONAVIRUS FIGURES FOR UK
DAILY TOLL
Coronavirus deaths have yesterday increased by 11 amid fears that the spread of the Indian variant could scupper the government’s roadmap out of lockdown.
The number of cases has increased by 2,284 - bringing the total to 4,441,975.
The increase in fatalities brings the total to 127,640.
It is the same figure as last week’s toll of 11 - but below the 14 deaths reported a fortnight ago.
Meanwhile, cases are down slightly on last Wednesday’s figure of 2,511 - and also below the 2,510 infections recorded a fortnight ago.
