Health workers transport the body of a man who died of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from a funeral ambulance to a cemetery in New Delhi, India, April 16, 2021. REUTERS / Danish Siddiqui
British health officials are investigating a COVID-19 variant from India, but so far they do not have enough evidence to classify it as a concern, Public Health England (PHE) Susan Hopkins said on Sunday.
Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC television, Hopkins said: “We do not yet have enough data on this variant to be able to clarify whether it is a variant of concern. We have put it as a variant under investigation.”
“To intensify it in the rankings, we need to know that it is increased transmissibility, increased severity or vaccine avoidance and we simply do not have this yet, but we analyze the data on a daily basis.”
PHE said it had identified 77 cases of the variant in the UK.
Earlier, Environment Minister George Eustice said Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s trip to India later this month should continue, despite the growing number of cases in the country.
“It is important that, if you want, business and political activity continue,” he said, adding that a committee of experts regularly reviews decisions on authorizing travel to certain countries.
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