Coronavirus: Over-50s and vulnerable in Indian variant hotspots will get second jabs rushed through

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Ministers last night approved plans aimed at slowing the spread of the Indian variant, after cases doubled in a week.

Older people living in areas of high infection are to be offered their second dose of the vaccine early to protect them.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has also been asked to examine the case for ‘targeted vaccinations’ of all over-17s in the worst-hit areas.

Surge testing for the new coronavirus variant will also be deployed in areas where it is spreading rapidly. Boris Johnson said he was ‘anxious’ about the variant and refused to rule out local lockdowns to help try to contain it.

But Government sources played down the risk that outbreaks of the ‘variant of concern’ could derail the plans to lift the lockdown on June 21.

The new variant spreads at an alarming rate, with Public Health England last night revealing that cases in the UK had more than doubled from 520 to 1,313 in a week.

But a source said there was no evidence so far that current vaccines would fail to protect against serious disease and death. ‘If it is just spreading quicker, that is no reason to change course,’ the source said.

‘The important thing is that we do not see a rise in hospitalisations and deaths. But we have to be cautious because we just do not know enough about this variant.’

Elsewhere in the Covid crisis:

• A preservative in AstraZeneca’s vaccine may trigger an overreaction from the immune system that causes clots, a scientist claimed;
• Portugal is expected to enforce Brussels’ blanket travel ban on non-EU travellers including British holidaymakers until at least May 30, despite being on the UK’s ‘green list’ of safe destinations from Monday;
• More than 90million fewer face-to-face GP appointments were carried out last year, MailOnline can reveal;
• BA chiefs revealed the future of post-Covid air travel ahead of the lifting of the UK’s international travel ban;
• A couple in their 60s died from Covid in two hospitals inside an hour of each other in ‘out of the blue’ tragedy.

Last night’s move will see people aged over 50 and those with underlying health conditions offered their second jab earlier if they are living in an area where the Indian variant is spreading fast.

Figures yesterday showed the UK had recorded its biggest daily rise in cases since April 27. There were 2,657 new cases of the disease, up from 2,284 new cases the day before. Eleven patients were confirmed to have died within 28 days of a positive test, the same as the previous day.

Blackburn with Darwen Council in Lancashire yesterday claimed jabs would be offered to all over-17s, after infection levels doubled in a week, but later changed its mind and said the vaccines would be offered only to those age groups which had been invited to come forward by the NHS.

But neighbouring Bolton – which has the highest infection rates in the country – last night pleaded with the Government to be allowed to administer jabs to all adults.

David Greenhalgh, the council’s Conservative leader said: ‘Send us more vaccinations and allow us to vaccinate 18 years-plus now. That is the answer, not further restrictions.’

Other known hotspots include Bedford and Sefton in Merseyside. Britain’s national outbreak remains generally flat, with another 2,657 more coronavirus cases and 11 deaths.

The Prime Minister said yesterday: ‘It is a variant of concern, we are anxious about it.’

Speaking at a primary school in Ferryhill, County Durham, he said: ‘There is a very wide range of scientific opinion about what could happen. We want to make sure we take all the prudential, cautious steps now that we could take. There is a range of things we could do – we are ruling nothing out.’

The variant spreads more quickly than the Kent strain, which is currently the most dominant in the UK, although scientists are not yet sure whether it causes more severe illness and hospitalisations.

Public Health England confirmed yesterday that several of the areas in England with the highest infection rates are those where the Indian variant is known to be rampant.

But scientists remain divided as to whether the variant can be contained locally – through increased vaccination and testing – or whether the Government should delay the next stage of the easing of restrictions.

Professor John Edmunds, epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a member of Sage, said that at this stage, efforts should be focused on local measures.

He said: ‘We should look at whatever we can locally in terms of containing the spread. That’s a much better way of doing it. It’s still fairly isolated.

‘It’s only if it gets out there and it becomes more widespread, that more widespread measures might be necessary.’

But Dr Deepti Gurdasani, a lecturer in epidemiology at Queen Mary’s University of London, told Times Radio: If it’s growing now, with current restrictions, we can’t afford to be easing restrictions.

‘We are seeing rapid exponential growth. And if we ease restrictions further, that’s leading us straight into another lockdown.’

Professor Ravi Gutpa, a professor of clinical microbiology at Cambridge University, said it was 50:50 whether restrictions would be eased on June 21.

He told Sky News: ‘The problem is that (the variant) has seeded so quickly that it’s probably spread to other areas.

‘So we may get dissemination of the virus before the vaccine has taken effect. It’s going to be a difficult decision and it’s 50:50 at the moment.’

Steve Baker, of the 70-strong Covid Recovery Group of Tory MPs, said ministers should not be considering extending lockdowns.

He added: ‘Why on Earth would we lock down when the vaccines continue to break the link between cases and hospitalisations and deaths?’

The case count was on a par with last Thursday’s – a 1.7 per cent rise from 2,613 — but the number of positive test results have been rising for over a week, with fears growing about the highly infectious Indian variant that is spreading quickly.

Deaths were down 15 per cent, continuing three months of decline, and hospital admissions are also still tumbling thanks to the vaccine rollout.

Just 99 people were admitted to hospitals across the UK with Covid on Sunday – the most recent count – marking only the second time since last August that fewer than 100 new patients were taken in.

Despite a levelling off in cases, which without vaccines would lead to stagnant hospital cases and deaths, Public Health England’s medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle said: ‘Hospitalisations continue to fall, which shows the vaccine is working.’

Another 184,210 people got their first doses yesterday along with 452,437 booster jabs, meaning 35.9million — two-thirds of adults — have had at least one vaccine and 18.9m are fully immunised.

In a bid to clear up confusion about a vaccines free-for-all in Blackburn a council spokesman said in a statement: ‘Contrary to earlier social media and news reporting, vaccines at the clinics will not be widely available to over-18s.

‘They will be available within current Government guidance, which is currently anyone over the age of 38, anyone over 18 with an underlying health condition or who lives with someone who has lowered immunity, health and social care staff and carers.

‘Blackburn with Darwen Council and NHS partners have responded immediately to provide doses of the Pfizer vaccine at the clinics following yesterday’s announcement on a rise in cases of Covid-19 linked to, in part, a new variant of concern, first identified in India, that may spread more easily.’

PHE publishes a surveillance report on the spread of the virus across the nation every week displaying infection rates for every council.

Bolton had the biggest spike in infections in the country last week, the figures showed, after cases leapt from 85.2 per 100,000 residents to 187.8. This was also the highest infection rate in the country.

Bedford had the third biggest jump in cases, which surged by 107 per cent over seven days from 39.8 to 82.5 per 100,000.

Sefton in Merseyside had the fourth, by 106 per cent from 26.1 to 53.9 per 100,000. And Blackburn with Darwen had the sixth, by 96 per cent from 54.1 to 106.2 per 100,000.

PHE does not provide data on how many of these cases are down to the Indian variant, but sequencing by the Sanger Institute suggests it is dominant in these areas.

The second biggest spike in infections was recorded in St Helens, also in Liverpool, where cases rose by 119 per cent. But they only increased from 8.3 to 18.3 per 100,000.

It is thought the apparent high rise may be down to the low case rates, because even a small number of cases could lead to a big uptick.

Sanger Institute data shows the B.1.617.2 variant has not been spotted in this borough at present.

The fifth largest rise was in Middlesbrough, after infections there increased 97 per cent in a week from 25.5 to 50.4 per 100,000. It is not clear why cases have risen, although it may be down to outbreaks triggered in schools. There is no suggestion that the Indian variant has been detected in the area.

Dr Doyle said: ‘Our surveillance shows case rates have remained stable in the majority of age groups around England, although hospitalisations continue to fall, which shows the vaccine is working.

‘This, along with the concern about cases of the variant VOC-21APR-02 (B.1.617.2) which was first detected in India, should keep us cautious and remind everyone that this is not yet over.

‘On Monday more restrictions will lift, but don’t jump the gun this weekend. Every day that we limit mixing is another day that we help reduce infections. 

‘Only socialise in groups of six or in two households outside, remember ‘hands, face, space, fresh air’ even when the next restrictions ease and accept the vaccine when offered.’

During a visit to a primary school in County Durham on Thursday, Mr Johnson said: ‘It is a variant of concern, we are anxious about it. There are a range of things we could do, we want to make sure we grip it. 

‘We want to make sure we take all the prudential, cautious steps now that we could take, so there are meetings going on today to consider exactly what we need to do. There is a range of things we could do, we are ruling nothing out.’   

The PM added: ‘At the moment, I can see nothing that dissuades me from thinking we will be able to go ahead on Monday and indeed on June 21, everywhere.’

But he hinted door-to-door testing could be rolled out in dozens of areas where the mutant strain is known to be spreading, warning ‘there may be things we have to do locally and we will not hesitate to do them if that is the advice we get’.

It came as a cross-party group of MPs and families living in hotspots currently grappling the new variant slammed No10 for taking too long to ban travel from India.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus said a ‘failure to act swiftly enough’ had propelled the spread of the highly-infectious strain, which they warned could undo the success of the jab rollout and winter lockdown.

Ministers only added India to the ‘red list’ in late April, despite the country suffering a devastating second wave and UK officials knowing about the B.1.617.2 variant for weeks. The delay saw thousands of travellers from the coronavirus-stricken nation flood into the UK.

A Bolton woman whose family originate from India told MailOnline the Government was ‘to blame’ for an outbreak of the strain in the Greater Manchester town and rapidly rising case numbers nationally. Rukhsana Shaikh, 49, said she personally knows of dozens of fellow Bolton residents who arrived back in the town from India just days before travel was restricted.

Doctors in India — where the variant has triggered an explosion in cases — claim there was sudden spike in Covid hospital admissions among people under 45, who have traditionally been less vulnerable to the disease.

There have been anecdotal reports from medics that young people make up two third of new patients in Delhi. In Bangalore, under-40s made up 58 percent of infections in early April, up from 46 percent last year.

But this could be completely circumstantial – older people are more likely to shield themselves or to have been vaccinated – and there is still no proof younger people are more badly affected by the new strain. 

The risk of children getting ill with Covid is still almost non-existent.   

Testing figures show the new variant is behind half of all Covid infections in Bolton, Blackburn, Bedford, South Northamptonshire and Sefton in Merseyside. Cases are also increasing in London. 

Fears are growing on the ground in Bolton, according to residents who spoke to MailOnline. Ms Shaikh said the blame for the outbreak of the variant lay firmly at the feet of ministers.

‘Bolton has a very large community of people with Indian origins like me. And they were frequently travelling back and forth to the country right up until the moment India was placed on the red list,’ she added.

‘The UK Government should have got its act together and if you ask me, they’re to blame for the Indian variant being in this country. The coronavirus situation in India started getting bad in March but there were people from Bolton who were still travelling there.

‘They were coming back after about two or three weeks, returning to work and their kids went back to school. Look at the situation now in India and it’s madness that our Government didn’t’ stop people from travelling there much earlier.’ 

While only pockets of the country are being impacted at present, scientists have warned against tiered localised lockdowns and said the variant should be viewed as a national problem.

Professor James Naismith, a biologist at Oxford University, claimed the strain will eventually ‘get everywhere’ as the Kent variant did when it emerged in the South East last autumn. 

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: ‘I think we should view it as a country-wide problem. It will get everywhere.

‘We keep learning this lesson, but we know that this will be the case. When we tried locally having different restrictions in different regions that didn’t really make any difference. So I don’t think thinking about a localised strategy for containment will really work.’

Striking a more optimistic tone, No10 adviser Professor Steven Riley, from Imperial College London, told Times Radio there was a need to keep an eye on variants but suggested the UK was currently in a good place thanks to how effective the vaccines were. 

Asked if the Indian Covid variant could ‘frustrate’ the vaccine programme, Professor Naismith said not enough was known to say for sure.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The vaccines don’t 100 per cent prevent infection for people. What they do, is they almost 100 per cent prevent hospitalisation and serious illness.

‘We don’t know enough to know yet whether the Indian strain will behave differently than that.

‘So even the regular virus can infect people who have been vaccinated and sometimes you do get reinfection. And the very, very large number of cases in India mean things that are rare will be detected.’

It came after the environment secretary yesterday said the Government ‘can’t rule anything out’ when it comes to localised lockdowns and trying to get on top of the Indian variant.  

George Eustice told Sky News: ‘We want to try and avoid having to get into a tiered system and regionalisation, we tried that last autumn and in the end we had to go for full lockdown.

‘But there is always a risk and the greatest risk we have is a new variant that will come in that the vaccine is less effective against it.’

Quizzed about the lockdown-easing timetable, SAGE’s Professor Riley told Times Radio it would be a political decision but suggested the vaccines would prevent rising infections turning into a wave of hospitalisations.

He added: ‘Whether the restrictions run on a timetable is a Government decision and it’s just not useful to try and speculate what they will do.

‘I think there’s two key things that have got to be kind of evaluated: if infections go up, how quickly will they go up… but then after that, are they linked to the hospitalisations?

‘The top-line Government policy is driven by protecting the NHS, so even if infection starts to go up, we then need to assess whether that’s bringing a lot of new cases into hospitals, and there’s certainly no sign of that at the moment.’

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has called for over-16s in Bolton and the wider Greater Manchester area to be offered Covid vaccines earlier to quell the rise in cases of the Indian variant in Bolton.

Residents there expressed fears to MailOnline the rise of the strain could jeopardise the easing of the lockdown and prevent normal life from returning.

Businessman Dalawar Majeed, 42, who visited India earlier this year, before it was placed on the red list said: ‘It’s been a disastrous year financially and just when I was hoping that things would improve, we’ve now been hit with this Indian variant.

‘I was in India visiting family in January at the situation was not that bad out there. There are many people in this town with ties to the country and regularly travel there and have obviously brought this strain back.’

Frank Sullivan, 56 said: ‘I was really looking forward to sitting inside a pub and having a pint. The concern now is that given the Indian variant, that might not happen.

‘The Government have already said that they might introduce local lockdowns so if things continue as they are, Bolton might be one of those places. It’s a big worry for us all.’

Concerns over the spread of the variant have further increased as three-day Eid al-Fitr celebrations begin marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan for Muslims across the world.

Bolton has a large Muslim population, many of them originating from India.

Shah Ahmed, a member of a local mosque said: ‘The mosques have been making announcements telling people not to visit each other’s homes, hug and to maintain social distancing.

‘But that is going to be very hard to implement. Eid is a festival that brings families and friends together, people have had a very had year and they are going to want to celebrate in the way they traditionally do.’

Surge testing has been rolled out in Bolton and nearby Blackburn with Darwen where outbreaks have grown by 93 and 86 per cent in a week, respectively, with more than half of lab-checked cases proven to be the Indian strain.

Trevor Lee, 55 was waiting for his wife Caroline, 49 outside a vaccination centre.

He said: ‘There seem to be so many variants floating around I just can’t keep up with it. To be honest, I’ve stopped following the news because it just gets me too worried. I’m going to carry on as normal and continued taking all the precautions.’

Caroline added: ‘I’ve just had my vaccine and I’m going to make sure that I get tested regularly because this Indian variant is very worrying for all of us. I just don’t think we’re ever going to see the back of this coronavirus problem.’

Ray Cumberstone, 42 said: ‘We should all be worried because we don’t know how quickly this strain can spread.

‘The good thing is that the authorities have picked up on this quite quickly so I’m praying that they will be able to control it before things get out of hand.’ 

Gillian Callaghan, 56 said: ‘I have had both vaccines, but it seems that with this Indian variant that might not be enough. Both my husband and I get tested regularly and we’re going to continue with that, even though we’ve both had the jabs.’

Her daughter Amy, 28 added: ‘We were hoping to go on a family holiday to Scotland at the end of August. My fear is that if this variant gets out of control then they might lock Bolton down and that would be a disaster for us all.’

Nicola Sturgeon tweeted last night officials were ‘monitoring very closely’ the Indian variant’s spread in Glasgow  after cases rose above 50 per 100,000 – Scotland’s threshold for easing restrictions. Infections have doubled since the end of April.

Yesterday it was revealed that India‘s Covid variant is now dominant in four local authorities in England and its rapid spread could jeopardise plans to ease lockdown.

Analysis by one of the UK’s biggest variant trackers warned the strain is focused in hotspots Bolton and neighbour Blackburn with Darwen, where outbreaks have grown by 93 and 86 per cent in a week, respectively, with more than half of lab-checked cases proven to be the Indian strain. 

It came as the UK yesterday confirmed another 2,284 positive tests, up seven per cent on last Wednesday’s figure, along with 11 more deaths. Another 485,260 vaccines were given out yesterday, of which 350,000 were second doses. 

Early lab trials suggest the current vaccines will still protect against the Indian variants but there are concerns that a faster rate of spread could lead to a bigger outbreak, giving more opportunities for people to get reinfected. 

AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine appears to be protecting people from the Indian variant of the virus, reports suggest.

And Pfizer said in a report there was ‘no evidence’ its shot would need to be updated to fight off the current variants. 

Data shows that seven out of England’s 10 Covid hotspots are in the North of England with three in the Midlands (Erewash, Bedford and North Lincolnshire), while the places where positive tests are rising fastest are scattered across the country. There are not yet conclusive links to the variant. 

There are three Indian variants but only B.1.617.2 has sparked major concerns because cases have doubled in the past week, with 520 officially spotted since the first positive sample was detected in late February. 

It now makes up six per cent of cases nationally, a leap from fewer than one per cent last month.

Some scientists have criticised Boris Johnson’s plan to push on with lockdown easing on Monday, warning the rising cases and spread of the Indian variant suggest he should ‘absolutely’ hit the pause button until further research is carried out on its impact on the jab.

Layla Moran MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, said: ‘The latest figures are deeply concerning and suggest the government failed to act swiftly enough to prevent the Indian variant being imported into the UK.

‘Ministers only added India to the red list several weeks after this mutation was identified as a variant of concern, by which time it was too late.

‘Our cross-party report has called for countries to be added to the ‘red list’ as soon as variants of concern are identified, and for quarantine rules to then come into force with immediate effect.

‘The government must rethink its flawed approach to international travel and focus on preventing the importation of variants, which scientists agree pose the biggest risk to our hard-won progress against Covid-19.’

Sanger Institute figures on the variants aim to exclude cases from international travellers and surge testing, revealing how troublesome variants spread in the community.

For this reason their data do not include every case of the Indian variant identified.  It is also impossible to sequence a strain from every swab because some contain too few virus particles.

Bolton had the most cases of the Indian variant in England over the week to April 24, their data showed. There were 47 samples spotted (55 per cent of all cases in that area). 

It was followed by neighbouring Blackburn with Darwen, with lab sequencing spotting 19 genetic matches (55.7 per cent). 

Ten were also found in Bedford over the same period (53.8 per cent) and five in South Northamptonshire (76.9 per cent).

But University College London mathematician Professor Christina Pagel cited other Sanger Institute data suggesting the strain may already be responsible for more than 65 per cent of cases in the hotspots.

She found 75 per cent of those in the community in Blackburn with Darwen were down to the variant, and as many as 73 per cent in Bedford and 69 per cent in Bolton.

Department of Health data shows Covid cases were ticking upwards in all three areas in the week to May 9, a reversal on a four-month trend of plummeting infections.

Surge testing was only launched in Bolton four days ago, but officials say it will take about a week before it shows up in the statistics.  

Bolton has registered 707 new Covid cases over the two weeks since April 24, which means the true number of cases of the Indian variant spotted there could be in the region of 400. Cases jumped by 93 per cent in the space of a week.

There were 241 Covid cases in Bolton over the week to May 1, and 466 in the week to May 8, a surge of 93 per cent. 

And Blackburn with Darwen had 229 infections over the same time period, indicating they may have more than 130 cases of the strain. This was a jump of 86 per cent. 

When official data was broken down to a more granular level it showed that five of the ten worst-hit neighbourhoods in the country were in Bolton. 

This is despite more than 50 per cent of people in the same postcode areas having already been vaccinated.