{"id":234075,"date":"2021-05-17T07:04:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T07:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=234075"},"modified":"2021-05-18T07:00:20","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T07:00:20","slug":"covid-19-indian-variant-can-spread-like-wildfire-among-those-not-vaccinated-health-secretary-matt-hancock-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=234075","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19: Indian variant can ‘spread like wildfire’ among those not vaccinated, Health Secretary Matt Hancock warns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greg Heffer \u2013 Sky News May 16, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Health Minister Matt Hancock (right), with Bill Gates. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

There is a “high degree of confidence” that vaccines protect against the Indian variant of COVID-19 – but it can “spread like wildfire” among those who haven’t had a jab, Matt Hancock has told Sky News.<\/p>\n

The health secretary urged those who are eligible for vaccination – but have not yet booked an appointment – to come forward to get their vaccine as he warned against the possible impact of the Indian COVID<\/a><\/strong> variant.<\/p>\n

Mr Hancock said it can “spread even faster” than the Kent variant, which drove the UK’s deadly second wave of infections this winter, with a total of just over 1,300 cases found in the country so far.<\/p>\n

He said it was “becoming the dominant strain in some parts of the country” such as Bolton and Blackburn.<\/p>\n

In Bolton, where a number of people have ended up in hospitals with the Indian variant, the “vast majority” of those patients had been eligible for a COVID jab but had not yet had one, Mr Hancock said.<\/p>\n

He likened the current situation facing the country to “a race between the vaccination programme and the virus”, with the Indian variant having “given the virus some extra legs in that race”.<\/p>\n

There have been concerns that the spread of the Indian variant in the UK could derail the government’s roadmap for easing lockdown restrictions.<\/p>\n

But Mr Hancock said tomorrow’s planned easing to stage three of the roadmap – allowing indoor mixing between households – would still go ahead.<\/p>\n

And a decision would be announced on 14 June as to whether the country would proceed to stage four a week later, when ministers aim to remove all legal limits on social contact.<\/p>\n

Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pressure to “get vaccinated now” is building but you really have to ask why? When for most, bar the elderly and those with pre-existing health problems, Covid-19 will be little worse than seasonal flu. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=234075"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234105,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234075\/revisions\/234105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=234075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=234075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=234075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}