Coronavirus: How did the Indian variant reach the UK?

Further emergence from lockdown in jeopardy after spread of B1617.2 sparks concern

The UK’s plans to end social distancing and make its final steps out of lockdown on 21 June have been thrown into doubt thanks to the spread of the Indian variant of the coronavirus, thought to be more highly transmissible than the original strain of Covid-19.

Health secretary Matt Hancock revealed on Monday that the number of cases had leapt by 1,000 in four days and that the variant had become the “dominant” strain in the Lancashire hotspots of Bolton and Blackburn.

He also announced that surge testing will be extended to Bedford after a rise in cases of the variant there, saying: “There are now 86 local authorities where there are five or more confirmed cases.”

But Mr Hancock stressed that “the initial observational data from India that vaccines are effective against this variant”.

The latest increase saw the total number of infections rise from 1,313 on Thursday 13 May to 2,323 confirmed cases on Monday 17, a rise of 77 per cent.

B1617.2, one of three mutations of the B1617 lineage, has been designated as “under investigation” by health officials after rising to account for 20 per cent of new cases from two per cent a month ago.

Precisely how the Indian variant came to the UK is unknown: it could have been brought back by a traveller arriving directly from India or by someone entering the country from elsewhere who contracted it after coming into contact with a carrier who themselves had previously spent time there.

Or, as with the other variants we have seen, the Indian strain might not actually have mutated in India at all - the country just happening to be the first location in which it was identified.

Whatever its origins, infections are particularly prevalent in the north west of England, in areas including Bolton, Greater Manchester, Blackburn with Darwen, Kirklees and Burnley.

The variant has also been detected prominently in Bedford and in Erewash in Derbyshire, Melton in Leicestershire, Selby in North Yorkshire, Newcastle and Tynemouth on Tyneside, in South Northamptonshire, South Holland, Nottingham and Sheffield.

Parts of London have also been impacted, including Tower Hamlets, Haringey, Ealing, Hounslow, Hillingdon, Harrow and Watford.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has meanwhile condemned prime minister Boris Johnson over the “catastrophic misstep” of failing to place restrictions on new arrivals from India last month, despite the disastrous outbreak the country has suffered this spring.

India’s second wave has seen it become the world epicentre of the global crisis, pushing the country’s total number of infections above 25 million and its official death toll over 278,000 - a figure considered to be a huge undercount by experts.

Its health infrastructure has crumbled under the weight of the soaring caseload, with even major cities like Delhi and Mumbai suffering critical shortages of oxygen, drugs, basic medical supplies and indeed medical staff.

On Tuesday, the country suffered the devastating loss of 50 doctors in one day to the virus run rampant.