The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) met on Thursday to discuss the highly transmissible variant after UK cases tripled in a week from 520 to more than 1,700, a development that followed Mr Johnson warning that a further coronavirus surge is likely this winter and could cause “even greater suffering” as he announced an independent public inquiry into his administration’s handling of the pandemic would commence next spring.
The new variant of Covid-19 first identified in India is being closely monitored in the UK and is of “increasing concern”, prime minister Boris Johnson has said, as fears grow that its unchecked spread could delay the final easing of lockdown restrictions on 21 June.
On Friday, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi sought to downplay the threat to lockdown easing, telling Sky News: “The road map for Monday remains in place, because the vaccines are delivering, and vaccines are keeping people out of hospital and, of course, away from severe infection.”
“At the moment we have no evidence that it escapes the vaccines or is more severe in its impact on people,” he added.
Scientists are meanwhile calling on the government to introduce “surge vaccinations” in areas of England that have seen a recent rise in cases linked to the variant.
Where has the Indian variant been found?
Infections appear to be at their highest in Erewash in Derbyshire and are particularly prevalent in the north west of England, in areas including Bolton, Greater Manchester, Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and Sefton.
Andy Burnham, the mayor for Greater Manchester, has said the Joint Committee for Vaccines and Immunisations is considering a request to vaccinate all over-16s in Bolton to thwart the rising infection rate.
The variant has also been detected in Newcastle and Tynemouth on Tyneside, in South Northamptonshire and Bedford as well as in parts of London and in Scotland, notably Moray and Midlothian.
Leaked Public Health England documents seen by The Guardian indicated a further 48 clusters of the Indian variant have been identified, with some linked to secondary schools, care homes and religious gatherings.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, James Naismith of Oxford University said on Thursday: “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.”
He added that local restrictions would not contain the variant’s spread. “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.”
How many UK cases have there been so far?
Figures due out shortly are expected to confirm a total of 1,723 cases of B1617.2, one of three mutations of the B1617 lineage, which is fuelling the spiralling death toll in India, currently the world epicentre of the crisis.
B1617.2 has been designated as “under investigation” by health officials.
Why is it such a cause for concern?
The Indian coronavirus variant is considered to have concerning epidemiological, immunological or pathogenic properties.
Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the B1.617 lineage features two “escape mutations” – E484Q and L452R – that “are causing people to be concerned”.
“There’s laboratory evidence that both of these are escape mutations,” he told the PA news agency.
“Basically, applying what we know about other human coronaviruses would suggest that this is going to be even less controlled by vaccine. But we don’t know that for certain at the moment.”
This variant, along with others such as the Brazilian, South African and Kent strains, has demonstrated the way in which Sars-CoV-2 can adapt to a human host when placed under selective pressures.
Their unique mutations are specific to the three-dimensional spikes that coat the shell of the virus. “If you think of a lock and key mechanism, the spike protein is the key and then the lock is the receptor on a human cell,” said Professor Deenan Pillay, a virologist at University College London.
Through evolution, this structure has changed shape to make it easier for the virus to bind with and penetrate our cells, as seen with the UK variant.
Some Covid variants, including the Indian one, have mutated to become less recognisable to neutralising human antibodies that would normally attach to the virus’s spike protein and block its entry.
This type of mutation therefore allows Sars-CoV-2 to slip past the first line of immunological defence in people who have been vaccinated or previously infected, enabling the virus to carry on circulating.
