LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has seen a sharp rise in the number of confirmed cases of the B.1.617.2 coronavirus variant first found in India, Public Health England said on Thursday, with the total of 1,313 more than double what was reported last week.
The total is up by 793 from the 520 total confirmed cases of the variant reported last week. PHE labelled B.1.617.2 a “variant of concern” last Friday, due to evidence it is more transmissible that the original coronavirus.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout, editing by David Milliken)
