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April 21, 2021
LONDON: Putting India on the travel red list was a necessary step due to an “upward trend” in UK cases involving a potentially worrying variant, a public health expert has said.
Sharon Peacock, the head of the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK) and professor of public health and microbiology at the University of Cambridge, said it was currently unclear whether the variant first identified in India was behind its current wave, but there was enough concern to warrant slowing the number of cases coming into the UK.
On Monday, Boris Johnson was forced to cancel a trip to India while Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the Commons that 103 cases of the variant had been identified in the UK so far. The variant also known as B.1.617 was first noted internationally in October and first identified in the UK on February 22. It has 13 mutations including two in the virus’ spike protein known as E494Q and L452R.
Covid vaccine news - live: EU to reveal findings on J&J ‘clot link’ as Scotland lockdown to ease on Monday Kate Ng
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LIVE – Updated at 11:44
The European Medicines Agency are preparing to present the results of their investigation into possible links between the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine and rare blood clotting cases later today.
Last week, Johnson & Johnson suspended its vaccine rollout in the EU after the US Food and Drug Administration recommended officials pause its use while the rare food clot cases are examined. Six cases of the rare clotting disorder were identified in the US, out of nearly 7 million people who were given the single-dose jab in the country.
Covid travel news live: US to warn against trips to most of world, as UK border hit by fake test certificates Kate Ng and Jon Sharman Coronavirus in numbers
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LIVE – Updated at 13:23
The US is expected to advise against travelling to more than three-quarters of the world’s countries in an expansion of its coronavirus alert level.
The State Department’s level-four “do not travel” alert currently covers 34 nations including Kenya, Russia and Brazil, but officials now say they will extend it to 80 per cent of the globe.
It comes as British MPs are told that hundreds of people are trying to enter the country on fake Covid test documents.