London, Thanassis Gavos
The British government is concerned that the new variant of the coronavirus detected in South African countries “may pose a significant risk to public health”, UK Health Minister Sajid Javid said in an emergency statement to the House of Commons at noon.
He said the B.1.1925 variant is the only one that has been described as “very high priority” by scientists, making it the highest priority of the Beta variant.
He reiterated the warning that it may be more contagious than the prevailing Delta variant and that vaccines may be less effective in treating it. He also said that it may affect the effectiveness of one of the main treatments for coronavirus in the United Kingdom, the drug Ronapreve.
The British minister added that there is concern about the rapid spread of the variant in South Africa, where it is believed that there is great immunity due to the many previous infections. As he revealed, the cases in South Africa have quadrupled in the last two weeks.
He added that the cases in the African country are probably many times more than those that have been detected.
Although he assured that no cases of the variant have been identified in the United Kingdom yet, he estimated that the strain has already passed to other countries.
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