Boris Johnson was tonight accused of being reckless, misguided and dangerous for not shutting Britain s borders with India earlier after four people died from the new Indian covid strain.
The country was only added to the UK s travel red list late last month, despite earlier concerns over transmission of the fast-growing variant, which has since made its way onto British shores.
Some have suggested that Prime Minister was keen to keep relations strong with India, having planned a visit - which subsequently had to be cancelled - as part of efforts to negotiate a post-Brexit trade deal.
As a result, while flights were banned from neighbouring Pakistan early last month, borders between the two countries remained open for two more weeks, with as many as 8,000 people from India jetting into Britain on daily flights across that fortnight.
The dire SAGE warning that Indian variant could put 10,000 in hospital a day within months - which puts end of lockdown in peril and led scientists to BACK regional vaccine surges
SAGE model warns that up to 10,000 people per day could be hospitalised in summer in worst-case scenario
But scientists are optimistic vaccines will work against the strain and still no evidence it is more dangerous
Public Health England report showed cases in the UK more than doubled in a week from 520 to 1,313
Experts warn of hospitalisation surge if India variant spreads faster Sam Blanchard Deputy Health Editor For Mailonline A man walks out of a coronavirus testing site set up at St Mary s Church hall in the London borough of Hillingdon, England on May 14, 2021, as part of surge testing to monitor and suppress the spread of the Covid-19 variant first identified in India. - The Indian coronavirus variant has been detected in a number of areas in England which are reporting the highest rates of infection, data from Public Health England (PHE) suggests. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP) (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
How the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium sequenced Sars-Cov-2
Consortium of universities and other institutions has harnessed datasets, analytics and cloud computing to sequence Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in a blisteringly short time
Share this item with your network: By Published: 12 Apr 2021
Genomics, the study of genes, is a field of biology that relies on computing. While the ability to sequence – effectively, read – the human genome has gained much attention, researchers have been quietly working to use the same techniques to track and analyse diseases. This work stepped into the limelight in 2020 by focusing on Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.