July 2, 2021

expert reaction to PHE’s weekly COVID-19 variant cases data: 2 July

Public Health England (PHE) has released the latest surveillance data on SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern or under investigation.

Professor Lawrence Young, Virologist and Professor of Molecular Oncology, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, said:

“This data is important to consider in the decision to open up on the 19th July. We may have weakened the link between infections, hospitalisations and deaths but this significant increase in infections with the delta variant raises serious concerns. As the virus continues to spread in those who are unvaccinated or have only received one jab it will result in more disease, including increasing the burden of long covid. We are already seeing some of those who have been fully vaccinated getting infected and some of those become sick. And there is another worry – that as the virus spreads it will continue to generate new variants increasing the risk that one will pop up that is more vaccine resistant.”

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-variants-genomically-confirmed-case-numbers/variants-distribution-of-case-data-2-july-2021

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