LONDON (Reuters) – England’s deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam said on Wednesday that scientists should know by next week how much more transmissible the COVID-19 variant first found in India is compared to other strains.
“The best estimate I can give you really is the data will begin to firm up next week, and next week will be the first time when we have a ranging shot at what the transmissibility increase is,” Van-Tam told a press conference.
“We have a credible range that goes from a few percent more transmissible through to … 50% more transmissible. I think most people feel it is going to be somewhere in the middle, rather than at the extremes of that band.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; writing by Andrew MacAskill; editing by Michael Holden)
