The UK government’s scientific advisers were meeting Thursday to discuss the variant amid growing concerns it could jeopardize England’s plan to lift all legal limits on social contact from June 21.
Johnson said he remained “cautiously optimistic” about England’s plan to drop restrictions but that his government was “ruling nothing out.”
The variant, known as B.1.617, appears to be fueling a crippling second Covid-19 wave in India and has now spread to more than 40 countries, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO declared B.1.617 a “variant of concern” this week and said some evidence suggests it may be more transmissible than other strains.
The UK has reported more cases of B.1.617 and its sublineages than any other country outside India, according to the WHO.
On Thursday, Public Health England said cases of the variant had increased from 520 to 1,313 in the past week. The variant has spread most across the northwest and in London, where measures such as mobile…
