Covid: Which areas are being mass tested for the South Africa variant?
The government hopes “surge” testing will reduce transmission of the South African variant of Covid-19. Source link
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Covid-19: Test blitz to ‘find every case’ of South African variant
Door-to-door visits are starting in eight neighbourhoods in England to try to halt the spread. Source link
South African variant: ‘Cases not linked’
Dr Susan Hopkins, of Public Health England, has said cases of the South African variant “do not appear linked at the moment”. However, she adds that it has slightly more mutations in the spike protein which is perhaps causing vaccines to have “diminished effectiveness” although they still work very well. Around 80,000 people in England … Read more
UK ‘must come down hard’ on South Africa variant
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said 105 cases of the South African Covid-19 variant have been identified in the UK. He says there is no evidence to suggest the new variant is more severe but “we need to come down on it hard and we will”. Enhanced contact tracing is in place and extra testing is … Read more
SA variant: Urgent testing after community cases found
Testing will start in Surrey – but London, Kent, Hertfordshire and Walsall are also being targeted. Source link
Covid-19: Cough, fatigue, sore throat ‘more common’ in new variant
But loss of taste and smell may be less likely to affect those with the new strain, a study suggests. Source link
Coronavirus: UK variant ‘may be more deadly’
UK variant ‘may be more deadly’ Evidence suggests the coronavirus variant that emerged in the UK may be more deadly as well as spread faster. Source link
New UK Covid variant risk put into context by Vallance
There is evidence to suggest the new variant of Covid-19 may be linked to a higher mortality rate, according to UK chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance. Putting the data into context, he explained that for men in their 60s, the expected number of deaths had been about 10 in every 1,000 for the original … Read more
Covid: UK variant could drive ‘rapid growth’ in US cases, CDC warns
Health officials warn the highly contagious UK Covid variant could become the dominant strain in the US by March. Source link
CDC: New COVID Strain May Dominate U.S. by March
Jan. 15, 2021 — The CDC is urging Americans to double down on precautions to thwart the spread of the coronavirus, as the new B.1.1.7 “super strain” takes hold in the U.S. New CDC modeling shows the new strain could cause more than half of new infections in this country by March, even as … Read more