Small Clusters of B.1.617 Variant in UK, Vaccines Raise Hopes: Britain is breathing in some relief after Health Secretary Matt Hancock has pointed to firm signs that the B.1.617 Covid strain that was first found in India appears to be responding to vaccines. In the virus hotspot in the north England town Bolton, most of those seriously ill in hospital with the virus had not been vaccinated. It’s a similar picture elsewhere. Hancock suggests that the variant is “relatively widespread in small numbers”, suggesting clusters across different regions. So far 1,926 new infections have been identified. The government is signalling caution but not alarm over this variant.
Boris Faces Backlash after Delaying India Red-listing: Keeping the B.1.617 Covid strain of the virus in control in Britain could be a matter of survival for Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The UK government placed India on the red list of countries from which arrivals were to be restricted two weeks after it placed…