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London has been confirmed as the UK’s coronavirus hotspot after an infection surge in recent weeks, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The capital was shown on December 24 to have the highest percentage of people in the nation testing positive for COVID-19. UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock also warned that the COVID variant of the country was spreading at a “dangerous rate” and urged people to stay in the affected areas at home from Saturday.
UK PM Boris Johnson also refused to rule out another national lockdown earlier this week, as the country’s death toll from COVID-19 increased by 574, with another 39,036 cases. While speaking at a press conference in Downing Street, Johnson said the country was facing “significant new pressure” from the mutant strain, which has led to harsher restrictions across the country’s south-east. When asked if after Christmas he could rule out a national lockdown, the UK PM said that over the last few weeks it has been very tough and it will continue to be difficult.
Nearly half of all the new cases of COVID-19 in England could be a new variant of the lethal virus, according to the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) analysis. The United Kingdom has recorded 744 fatalities, the highest number since April in one day. The latest figures also show that almost 2,143 patients were hospitalised on Thursday.
New variant that is likely to increase the death toll
Meanwhile, recent research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases revealed that the new variant of the coronavirus strain is likely to cause more hospitalisation and increase the death toll in 2021, as it is 56% more communicable. SARS-CoV-2 variant VOC 202012/01, which emerged in the south-east of England in November 2020 “appears to be rapidly spreading towards fixation,” the new study said. However, there is still no scientific evidence that COVID-19 disease is expected to become more severe for those contracting the new variant as the WHO has collaborated with health experts around the world to obtain more information about the new mutated strain.
The United Kingdom has identified a second ‘more transmissible’ variant of COVID-19 linked to South Africa, which has spread at a dangerous rate despite the tiering system put in place, UK health secretary Matt Hancock announced. In London and North West England, at least two cases diagnosed with coronavirus were diagnosed, with a positive second new variant. Both patients have travelled from South Africa in the last few weeks. Scientists have found the first variant of the fast-evolving genome with 17 mutations.
