UK lockdown may extend beyond June 21 due to new COVID variant
Times of IndiaTIMESOFINDIA.COM|TRAVEL NEWS, UNITED KINGDOM Created : Jun 9, 2021, 11:38 IST
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The lockdown in the United Kingdom now may extend beyond June 21 after the discovery of the new COVID variant named
Delta. The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly told his Cabinet that the data collected in the last four weeks will decide whether all legal coronavirus restrictions can end by June 21.
Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said, There still remains nothing in the data currently to suggest Step 4 can t go ahead at the earliest date. But we do need to look very closely at the data over this coming week .
UK News: The Delta variant of the coronavirus is estimated to be 40% more transmissible than the Alpha variant that caused the last wave of infections in the U
The UK recorded a further 6,238 Covid cases on Friday, even as the government maintains that there is "nothing in the data" to suggest ending lockdown should be delayed.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he is increasingly confident that England is on track for the government s roadmap to exit the coronavirus lockdown, local media reported. His remarks came after a study by Public Health England (PHE) showed promising results for the two main vaccines being used to fight the pandemic in Britain, reports Xinhua news agency. I m increasingly confident we re on track for the roadmap because this data shows the vaccine after two doses works just as effectively, and we all know that the vaccine is our way out of this, Hancock told Sky News on Sunday. According to the PHE study, which took place between April 5 and May 16, the Pfizer vaccine was 88 per cent effective against symptomatic disease from the India-related variant two weeks after the second dose, compared with 93 per cent effectiveness against the variant identified in Kent.