As we have often found with Covid-19, no sooner does a path seem to emerge out of the woods than the trees close in again. On Monday, the Prime Minister confirmed that the further relaxation of lockdown rules – including the reopening of indoor hospitality – would go ahead as planned next week. Daily totals of deaths from Covid-19 have been running at very low levels – indeed deaths from all causes are now running 7.3 per cent lower than the recent five-year average, according to the ONS.
If the variant is able to get around the vaccine, there may still be a useful effect in preventing hospitalisations and deaths
Yet this morning, Sage is meeting to discuss whether any further reopening of the economy should be delayed – owing to a worrying rise in Britain in the number of cases of B.1.617.2, one of the Indian variants of Sars-CoV-2. In advance, Professor James Naismith of Oxford University told the Today programme that he thought local restrictions would not be sufficient to contain the spread of the new variant.
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