The Covid alarm returns in the United Kingdom with 50 thousand infections and over 200 deaths in 24 hours.
Boris Johnson's government is quick to point out that the impact of the infection on hospitals remains under control at the moment and the hospitalization curve is "substantially flat" thanks to vaccines, but the free all of these months returns to discuss even for a sudden slowdown in the vaccination campaign.
We need to revive "vaccination programs", says the prime minister, both by trying to reduce that 20% of the population that has not yet immunized, and by accelerating with the third dose promised to the vulnerable and all over 50s. A spokesman for Downing Street has however reiterated that the government keeps "under close observation" the data on the rebound of infections (increasing in particular among school students). But those who are afraid of the return of the restrictions can sleep peacefully: any "plan B", with hypothetical restoration of some restrictions in the cold season, the spokesman guaranteed, will not be considered unless the pressure on the NHS hospitals returns. to soar to the "unsustainable levels" of previous waves of the pandemic.
Very controversial against Johnson and his health consultants Anthony Costello, a former British executive of the World Health Organization (WHO), according to which the United Kingdom is now in first place in the world for the ratio of daily infections to the population. Although at the same time it remains one of the countries with the lowest death rate in proportion to the cases surveyed.
In the background, a new mutation of the Delta variant emerges, called "AY.4.2" and indicated by British specialists as potentially more transmissible by a further 10%, although apparently not destined for the moment to prevail over the original strain. a new increase in infections linked to the approach of the winter season is also starting to peep out in other European countries such as France, where just today the government admitted that the epidemic has started to "gain ground".
(Unioneonline / D)
