[ad_1]
AGI – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson held an emergency meeting with his cabinet in the context of new alarms over the Sars Cov-2 variant, recently detected in south-east England and which, according to national health authorities, ” it can spread faster “than the previous one.
Johnson defended his sudden change in strategy in the fight against Covid-19, attributing it to the new variant. “We are very sorry and bitter, but when the facts change you have to change your approach,” he said in response to reporters who asked him the reason for the sudden change of course after having said only three days before that it would be “inhumane to cancel Christmas. “. .
“It is not possible to ignore the transmission speed of the new variant,” he warned, adding: “When the virus changes its method of attack, we must change our method of defense.”
Following the British premier, Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon also called an emergency meeting of his cabinet to discuss the alarms for the new variant. Sturgeon herself announced it on Twitter, warning that “preventive action may be necessary to stop the spread of the new strain.”
At the press conference after the government meeting, Johnson was joined by Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and Chief Scientific Advisor Patrick Vallance. Just Whitty has made it known that the UK has informed the WHO that the new strain of coronavirus may spread more quickly. “As a result of the rapid deployment of the new variant, preliminary model data, and rapidly increasing incidence rates in the Southeast, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group (Nervtag) now believes that the new strain may spread. more quickly. “reads Whitty’s official statement.
“There is currently no evidence that this new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments, but work is urgently being done to confirm this,” he continued. The United Kingdom has informed the World Health Organization of the more rapid spread of this variant. Previous SARS-CoV-2 mutations have already been observed and reported worldwide.
In all, some 38 million people in England, or 68% of the population, already live in a “high alert” zone, the most severe level of restrictions that entails the closure of pubs, restaurants and museums, as well as the prohibition of mixing in the home with exceptions.
The United Kingdom, the most affected country in Europe together with Italy, with more than 66,500 deaths, launched a mass vaccination campaign on December 8, aimed mainly at the elderly and those who care for them. Following the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the British Medicines Agency (MHRA) is expected to approve a second vaccine on December 28 or 29, the one developed by the AstraZeneca laboratory with the University of Oxford, according to The Telegraph newspaper.
Updated at 18.49.
