Delta variant 60 percent more transmissible: UK

LONDON: The British government said on Friday that the new Delta coronavirus variant is 60 percent more transmissible in households than the variant that forced the UK to lock down in January.

The Delta variant, which first emerged in India, has caused a rise in cases in Britain, prompting questions about whether social distancing restrictions will be lifted as planned from June 21.

New research from Public Health England "suggests that the Delta variant is associated with an approximately 60 percent increased risk of household transmission" compared to the Alpha variant first identified in southeast England.

So far there have been 42,323 identified cases of the Delta variant in the UK, according to Public Health England’s data, up from 29,892 on June 2. The Alpha variant caused a surge of Covid cases in January before a mass vaccine campaign, leading to a three-month lockdown as hospitals were stretched to near-capacity.

The government has since ramped up its vaccine drive, and has now administered nearly 41 million first doses and nearly 29 million second doses to adults over 25. This means 43 percent of the total population are fully vaccinated and 18 percent are half vaccinated.

But cases are rising again, with new daily infections hitting 7,393 on Thursday, a level not seen since February. More than 90 percent of new cases were of the Delta variant, the government said. However, the number of patients in hospital remains low, at just over 1,000 on Thursday, and Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said most in-patients are people who are unvaccinated.

The government said this suggested the vaccination programme is mitigating the impact of the Delta variant, urging the public to get both jabs. Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, said that "two doses provide significantly more protection" against the Delta variant than one.

The UK has reported 127,867 deaths from the virus, the highest toll in Europe. Under the government roadmap, England plans to drop rules on numbers at social gatherings and allow large weddings and the reopening of nightclubs from June 21.

But officials have stressed that they are open to changing this date if the virus situation changes, with a decision due next week, as many businesses push for full reopening. Meanwhile, Europe’s drug regulator on Friday advised against using AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine in people with a history of a rare bleeding condition and said it was looking into heart inflammation cases after inoculation with all coronavirus shots.

The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) safety committee in its evaluation said that capillary leak syndrome must be added as a new side effect to labelling on AstraZeneca’s vaccine. It is a condition in which blood leaks from the smallest of vessels into muscles and body cavities and is characterized by swelling and a drop in blood pressure.

The regulator first began looking into these cases in April and the recommendation adds to AstraZeneca’s woes after its vaccine has been dogged with problems, including a possible link to rare blood clotting issues.

Last month, the EMA had advised against using the second AstraZeneca shot for people with the clotting conditions. The watchdog is also broadening its probe into cases of myocarditis and pericarditis following inoculation with AstraZeneca’s vaccine and other shots from Pfizer, Moderna and J&J.The Moscow mayor on Friday sounded the alarm over a spike in coronavirus cases saying Covid-19 was becoming more difficult to treat as city authorities posted the highest number of daily infections since January.

"We expected that the spring pandemic peak would fall on April-May just like last year," mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in televised remarks. "But now we’re seeing that it has shifted towards June-July."

Sobyanin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, estimated that around half of Moscow residents had by now some level of immunity against the virus. "At the same time we are seeing just how aggressive Covid is," he said, stressing that it was becoming more difficult to treat it.

"Quite a lot of Muscovites are in intensive care on ventilators," he said. "The danger is real." Health authorities on Friday reported 5,853 new cases of coronavirus in Moscow, a record since mid-January.

Russia has been among the countries hardest hit by Covid-19. Russian health officials have registered more than five million coronavirus cases and more than 125,000 deaths but some experts say officials vastly under report fatalities.

The country has lifted nearly all virus-related restrictions and many Russians are refusing to wear masks on public transport and in other public places. Russia registered Sputnik V, the world’s first coronavirus vaccine, in August 2020, but authorities have struggled to ramp up vaccination efforts.