The Indian Covid strain is now officially a variant of concern, health chiefs have announced.
Public Health England confirmed the variant is ‘at least’ as infectious as the current dominant Kent strain, with cases more than doubling in a week to 520.
Cases of the mutant coronavirus have been found in schools, care homes and places of worship in Bolton and London. Up to one in ten cases in the capital are the variant, data suggests.
The strain, scientifically called B1617.2, is one of three related variants first seen in India which have been detected in the UK. The other two, which are genetically similar, are B1617.1 and B1617.3.
Early research suggests both the AstraZeneca vaccine, known as Covishield in India, and the Pfizer jab, still work against the variant. A paper published by SAGE last week suggested two doses of the Pfizer vaccine is good enough to protect against all known variants.
Public Health England says there is ‘no evidence that the variant causes more severe disease or renders the vaccines currently deployed any less effective’.
New measures will be put in place to contain clusters of the strain, including enhanced contact tracing and surge testing.
Public Health England has divided the Indian variant in three sub-types because they aren’t identical. Type 1 and Type 3 both have a mutation called E484Q but Type 2 is missing this, despite still clearly being a descendant of the original Indian strain. It is not yet clear what separates Type 1 and 3
Data modelled by Professor Christina Pagel suggested the variants now account for 10 per cent of Covid cases in London, and between 5 and 7 per cent of cases in the South East and East Midlands
APRIL 17: In the most recent data, the variant – now split into three recognisable strains – has been found in dozens of areas and accounted for 2.4 per cent of all positive tests sampled
APRIL 3: Only a handful of places had the Indian variant present in swab samples at the start of April, when most were in Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire
APRIL 10: By a week later the variant had spread to more areas and started to take off in London
Cases of the variant have been found in schools, care homes and places of worship in the North West, London and the East Midlands, largely linked to travel (file image, antibody testing in Birmingham)
Dr Susan Hopkins, COVID-19 Strategic Response Director at PHE said: ‘The way to limit the spread of all variants is the same and although we are all enjoying slightly more freedom, the virus is still with us.
‘Keep your distance, wash your hands regularly and thoroughly, cover your nose and mouth when inside and keep buildings well ventilated and meet people from other households outside.
‘If you are told to get a test, if you have any symptoms at all or have been in contact with someone who has tested positive, please make sure you get tested too.
‘We are monitoring all of these variants extremely closely and have taken the decision to classify this as a variant of concern because the indications are that this VOC-21APR-02 is a more transmissible variant.’
According to Channel 4 News, there have been at least 48 clusters of B1617.2, although overall numbers remain small.
According to internal documents from PHE, dated to May 5 and seen by The Guardian, the ongoing risk to public health from the variant subtype B1617.2 is ‘high’.
Nepal is now reporting 230 Covid cases per million, only narrowly behind India’s 280 per million, though its healthcare system is even less able to handle the surge
Nepal army personnel wearing PPE load the body of a Covid victim into the back of an ambulance so they can be taken for cremation
Dr Deepti Gurdasani, a clinical epidemiologist and senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, told The Guardian that ‘at the current doubling rate (B1617.2) could easily become dominant in London by the end of May or early June’.
It comes as seven confirmed cases of the B1617.2 variant were detected in Northern Ireland – the first discovered in the region.
Chief medical officer Dr Michael McBride said the news was ‘not entirely unexpected’ and that plans were in place ‘for such an eventuality’.
Health experts have said they ‘haven’t seen any hint’ of a current Covid variant that can fully evade the effectiveness of vaccines.
The Department of Health and Social Care and PHE have been contacted for comment.
It comes after MailOnline revealed this week that the Indian Covid variants now make up one in 10 cases in London.
Data from the Sanger Institute, which analyses positive swabs for different variants, suggest the mutant strains spread widely during April.
Nationally the three different variants account for 2.4 per cent of all infections in the most recent week, ending April 17, up 12-fold from just 0.2 per cent at the end of March.
But the same figures suggest one in 10 cases in London were caused by the B.1.617 variants.
Data also showed the proportion ranged as high as 46 per cent in Lambeth and 36 per cent in Harrow – but the figures are based on tiny numbers of cases so clusters or super-spreading events have an amplified effect that may fade quickly.
Not much is known about the Indian variants, linked to an explosion of cases in India that has seen dead bodies spill out onto the street and mass cremations taking place in public car parks because hospitals have ran out of oxygen.
But one expert said the data – which doesn’t include travellers’ tests and is intended to be a snapshot of community infection rates – suggests it could be ‘outcompeting’ the Kent variant, which is dominant in the UK.
The proportion of cases being caused by the variants is rising whereas it would be expected to fall alongside the Kent variant if they were equally as fast-spreading.
But it could also just be a coincidence that outbreaks were happening where the variants were present, said Professor Christina Pagel, a mathematician at University College London and member of the Independent SAGE panel of experts.
There are too few cases in the UK to actually be able to tell anything about how the variants behave, Professor Pagel added, and not enough genetic testing in India.