Indian variant: UK may start vaccinating young people in hotspots, and how much faster does it spread?

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Sat, 2021-05-15 13:12 — mike kraft

UK may start vaccinating young people in hotspots to combat spread of variant found in India Growing concerns over the spread of the coronavirus variant first identified in India may force the United Kingdom to tweak its Covid-19 vaccination program to prioritize people in the most affected areas, a top health official said Friday. Ivana Kottasová and Sharon Braithwaite, CNN CNN

(CNN)Growing concerns over the spread of the coronavirus variant first identified in India may force the United Kingdom to tweak its Covid-19 vaccination program to prioritize people in the most affected areas, a top health official said Friday.

Data released by Public Health England (PHE) on Thursday showed the number of confirmed cases of the B.1.617.2 variant in the UK has more than doubled in just a week, rising from 520 to 1,313 infections. The vast majority of cases were identified in England, with only a handful occurring in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

UK Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi said the country would "flex" its vaccine rollout in response to the growth of the variant. Younger people in certain areas, such as parts of northwest England and London, could be vaccinated sooner than scheduled, and officials could also shorten the time gap between first and second shots, Zahawi said.

We have been doing some work on multi-generational households where we vaccinate the whole household, over-18s, and of course the older groups who are already eligible," Zahawi said. "Or bringing forward the second dose, we look at all of that and be guided by the clinicians as to what we do on that." ...

The Indian strain was named a "variant of concern" in the UK last week. That designation is used for virus strains that are more transmissible, cause more severe disease, fail to respond to treatment, evade immune response or fail to be diagnosed by standard tests. In the case of B.1.617.2, PHE has said that the only indications so far are that the strain is more transmissible. ...

ALSO SEE: Indian Covid variant: How much faster does it spread?

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