UK Covid Surge Sparks Call For "Urgent" Probe Into Delta Plus
NDTV
UK reported the highest daily jump in new cases on Sunday since mid-July -- around when Prime Boris Johnson authorized the removal of most Covid-related restrictions in what was dubbed "Freedom Day."
Former U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called for "urgent research" into a mutation of the delta variant -- known as delta plus -- following a surge in Covid-19 cases in the U.K. UK reported its biggest one-day Covid case increase in 3 months just as the new delta variant AY.4 with the S:Y145H mutation in the spike reaches 8% of UK sequenced cases. We need urgent research to figure out if this delta plus is more transmissible, has partial immune evasion?
"We need urgent research to figure out if this delta plus is more transmissible, has partial immune evasion," Gottlieb said in a tweet.
"There's no clear indication that it's considerably more transmissible, but we should work to more quickly characterize these and other new variants. We have the tools."
