And it doesn’t rule out local lockdowns. Cases doubled to over 1300
(ANSA) – LONDON, MAY 14 – The alarm continues to grow in the United Kingdom for the cases of the ‘Indian variant’ of Covid registered in the country and the government of Boris Johnson is thinking of speeding up the timing of vaccinations – starting from the areas of the island most affected by the phenomenon – without even excluding a possible reintroduction of local lockdowns. “We are not excluding anything from the table,” said the minister for the Vaccination Campaign, Nadhim Zahawi, in response to a question from Sky News on the latter.
The overall scenario of infections and hospitalizations in the Kingdom currently remains at European lows and the country has just confirmed for Monday 17 an important step in easing the restrictions in the gradual exit path from the national lockdown of recent months. While the next step towards an almost total elimination of the limitations, set for June 21st, remains on the calendar, albeit subject to a verification of the data later on. But Johnson himself declared yesterday that he was worried about the Indian variant which – despite the closure of the borders to travel with India decreed in April – according to the latest data reported by the media has touched 1313 cases traced on the island: concentrated in particularly in some counties of England with a strong presence of Asian communities such as Derbyshire and more than doubled in 20 days. (HANDLE).