UK: Delta coronavirus variant could push R to 7 without mitigations says PHE chief

Dr Susan Hopkins, Public Health England’s strategic COVID-19 response director, told the Science and Technology Committee of the UK Parliament today that if the Delta variant B16712 was “unmitigated”, left to spread without any lockdown restrictions, the R number could become “greater than five and maybe up to seven”.  More...

UK: 1600 cases of Delta variant B.1.617.2 in Britain, now at >8% of total

According to the Covid-19 genomics UK consortium database, in sequences up to 11th May, there have been 1,604 instances of B.1.617.2, making it the second most common variant in the UK.   More...