THE GUARDIAN: Reports that Sage will meet on Thursday to discuss threat with PHE figures expected to show big jump in cases linked to variant
Evidence is growing that a troubling variant of the coronavirus discovered in India is more transmissible than the variant first detected in Kent and which fuelled the UK’s second wave of infections and spread around the world.
It comes amid reports that Public Health England figures to be released on Thursday could show that the number of cases linked to the variant have tripled in a week. The i newspaper reported that scientists on the Sage advisory committee would hold an urgent meeting on Thursday to discuss the threat.
Meanwhile, researchers at Imperial College London analysed more than 127,000 swabs taken between 15 April and 3 May in England, and found that while coronavirus case rates had halved compared with March, the variant of concern known as B.1.617.2 and found in India could be spreading faster than the “Kent variant”, at least in London. » | Ian Sample, Science editor | Thursday, May 13, 2021
