This surge of COVID-19 cases comes three months after the Indian health minister announced "India has successfully contained the pandemic." He believed that studies based on a mathematical " Indian Supermodel" suggested the country “may have reached herd immunity” through natural infections. Variants are just taking advantage of our carelessness,” says Rakesh Mishra, director of the Indian Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology. Spread of the virus is largely because of us not taking care of each other. “The major factor in the spread of the virus is the behavior of the people. The country now accounts for one in every three infections reported worldwide daily.
Many experts suspect that numbers could be even higher. But the combination of these two is proving catastrophic.Įvery day for a whole week, India has reported an average of 340,000 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday deaths exceeded 3,300. Germany has curbed most travel from the UK allowing only travel for German citizens, residents or their spouse/partner/child under 18 or for urgent humanitarian reasons.Human behavior is probably more to blame for the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic than the new mutants arising around the country. There have been some hotspots detected and experts are concerned that the UK will experience a third epidemic wave.įrance is mulling restrictions from the UK over a rise in cases of this variant, with foreign affairs minister Jean-Yves Le Drian stating on Sunday that British tourists could face tougher restrictions.
"The emergence of this variant in the UK has coincided with the easing of restrictions such as people being allowed to travel across the country, to attend hospitality venues inside, and the removal of the requirement for children to wear masks in schools," said Dr Gaunt, who is the Sir Henry Dale Fellow at The University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute. "It is important to limit to the strict minimum the categories of travellers that can travel from India for essential reasons and to subject those who may still travel from India to strict testing and quarantine arrangements," the Commission said in a statement.īut the variant has already been detected in more than 50 countries, according to the WHO's weekly epidemiological update.ĭespite low case numbers, the UK has reported significant percentage increases in the B.1.617.2 variant in recent weeks, counting a total of 3,424 cases of that variant. Many countries have already restricted travel from India where the variant is spreading significantly, with the European Commission urging EU member states just two weeks ago to further limit travel from India. More travel restrictions could be implemented
The WHO's technical lead for COVID-19, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, said in April that "having two of these mutations which have been seen in other variants around the world are concerning" due to possible "increased transmissibility" and "reduced neutralisation which may have an impact on our countermeasures including the vaccines". That type of mutation has been associated with increased transmission in other variants such as the P1 variant that is circulating in Brazil. In other sub-lineages of the B.1.617 variant, there is an amino acid change also thought to allow the virus to enter cells more easily. "In the spike protein, a deletion of two amino acids (157-158) has previously been linked to antibody escape," Dr Gaunt added, meaning it might influence how the variant responds to treatments or vaccines. The sub-lineage "B.1.617.2 has spread more rapidly than its two close relatives, and so it is of particular interest as to what mutations are exclusive to this lineage. One mutation, the L452R, is a change in the protein "associated with enhancing the ability of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to bind to host cell surface ACE2" found on the surface of cells, she said. The UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies wrote said this month that it is likely the variant is more transmissible than the B.1.1.7 variant that first emerged in the United Kingdom, adding that "it is a realistic possibility that it is as much as 50% more transmissible", according to the group's meeting minutes.ĭr Eleanor Gaunt at the University of Edinburgh says that several mutations in the spike protein, which is what the virus uses to enter into cells, are important.
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