Latest update on the rise in cases of B.1.617 (popularly known as the Indian variant of Coronavirus) states that people residing in some areas of Blackburn who are in the range of age 18 and over will be able to receive a coronavirus vaccine from next week. The news comes after the number of cases of this particular variant shot up. Sky News has reported that it “understands the areas seeing the extended vaccination rollout include Bastwell and Daisyfield; Billinge and Beardwood; and Shear Brow and Corporation Park.”
Researchers at Imperial College London analysed more than 127,000 swabs taken between 15 April and 3 May in England, and found that while coronavirus case rates had halved compared with March, the variant of concern known as B.1.617.2 and found in India could be spreading faster than the “Kent variant”, at least in London.. The variant has already spread to more than 30 countries, the WHO says.
“The variant B.1.617.2 is one of three subtypes of the mutation first detected in India and was designated as a VOC by Public Health England (PHE), with over 800 cases being traced in parts of the country,” The Times of India reported.
Meanwhile, in an article published in Science, de Oliveira and colleagues pointed out that a new variant that's initially detected in a particular country didn't necessarily emerge there. Calling the B.1.617 ‘Indian variant’ is being termed “racist”.
The article explains, "It is not known whether patient zero of each variant was a resident of or visitor to that country, and all variants have been identified well beyond the first countries in which they were identified." Names can therefore wrongly assign blame to the place where a variant was first found.
Reports suggest that the number of people infected with the coronavirus in England fell by almost half over the past month marking the lowest level of Covid-19 cases since last year, according to new statistics released in London on Thursday.
