Indian Covid Variant Spread Could Delay Easing Of Restrictions, Why?

[dave50]

This was on the news this morning. I don't understand why. All the elderly and vulnerable have had the vaccine that prevents serious illness even if they do get infected, the young don't suffer from it, so what is the problem? I find it very frustrating that nobody seems to question this.

[emmie]

the young can be affected by it, the ones in India are not just the elderly and frail. We will just have to wait and see what the government proposes, but as far as i am aware monday is the day when we can start to return to some sort of normality.

[ummmm]

Define young? Children have died from it.

[davebro]

Probably because it's a variant that the vaccines have not been extensively tested against. So it's not yet known if they confer immunity.

[Deskdiary]

The number of healthy children who have died is so tiny as to be statistically irrelevant.

Just been listening to a Professor on Nick Ferrari’s show, and she was of the opinion all should be ok just so long as the pockets of areas that have it are identified and isolated and T&T. Also, she said the Indian variant isn’t as spreadable as other variants.

It would be daft to renege on 17/5 and 21/6 for the country due to a few tiny areas.

[emmie]

they are testing some areas where the Indian variant has been found.
lets hope the government doesn't renege on its promises now.

[emmie]

not just a few DD but thousands of young children being infected. THis is in India not in UK.

https://www.freepressjournal.in/india/covid-19-second-wave-affected-children-in-india-79688-infected-in-5-states-since-march

[Bobbisox1]

Two areas in Tyneside identified with it

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-57086199

[emmie]

the amount of children in UK who have died from covid is small and it would seem they like many adults had underlying health conditions.

[emmie]

Bolton has been identified as a hotspot for the Indian variant, not good.

[rowanwitch]

Some of our cities and towns have large communities where travel to and from India is common, this could give the new variant a solid foothold as there will be some who slip through the quarantine and test system. Until we have absolute certainty that this variant carries no additional risk in terms of vaccine resis t ance, ease of transmission o r morbidity/ mortality it makes sense to hold back until we are sure.

[emmie]

that could take another six months or more, many businesses are already open, we can't shut them up again, it wouldn't be right to do so.

[Bobbisox1]

Here, I’d have though South Shields , due to their links to India a long time back and Ocean Road has many Indian restaurants , some next door to one another but this is in Tynemouth, another coastal resort

[Sqad]

I use this term again.....madness to be faced with a variant that we, the public know little about except that it is doubling transmission in a week in certain areas and we are still contemplating easing restrictions.

[emmie]

we didn't know anything about the SA variant, but that now has been downgraded, according to the news the other evening.

[rowanwitch]

It is only the controls on large gatherings, the huge weddings, festivals etc. Superspreader events. Think about the size of Indian weddings, 200 guests plus, closed location , then they all go back to work in the community, offices, shops, hospitals and some of those guests may well have flown in for the event. I would just keep the size cap on gatherings so if there are infections the numbers for tracking nd testing stay manageable.

[MWG14]

The media, newspapers & TV, love firing it all up, don't they?

[Sqad]

Relevant posts by rowan......in my opinion.

[douglas9401]

They do, almost as much as politicians love power over plebs.

[rowanwitch]

Thank you Sqad, I try to think these problems through sensibly

[emmie]

if there is another lockdown then heaven help us all, many won't wear it. why invite 4,000 youngsters to a gig in Liverpool, without masks or social distancing as they did the other week. They were all supposedly tested and free from covid.