PHE have published their data for Variants of Concern to 26 May2021

- B.1.617.2 is becoming dominant with 3,535 new cases
- But also increases in these variants of concern
P1 (+21)
B.1.351 (+32)
- New variant under investigation C.36.3 (+109)

cumulative chart excl B.1.1.7
Cumulative chart excluding B.1.1.7 and B.1.617.2

Over 900 cumulative cases of B.1.351 (South Africa)
Cumulative chart on an exponential chart
Variants heatmap (B.1.1.7 not coloured)
Variants heatmap (B.1.1.7 and B.1.617.2 not coloured)
Proportion of *variants* detected each week (B.1.617.2 is in orange, B.1.1.7 is in blue)
For the B.1.617.2 (variant first detected in India), the estimate of the Secondary Attack Rate (a measure of transmissibility) increases as new data is gathered.

This is a real concern, as transmissibility is the key factor (along with vaccine effectiveness) of projections.
We are here (Warwick/SPI-M modelling) - there is uncertainty around these projections and a key factor is transmissibility.
This has been a battle between the virus, vaccines, and variants.

The 'local lockdown' guidance (which was later amended) was presumably issued as there was a need to do so.

There is still uncertainty. However, data from vaccine effectiveness and in particular transmissibility of B.1.617.2 is becoming less uncertain.
The question is: if B.1.617.2 is very transmissible and hospitalizations increase significantly - what is the plan for getting the situation back under control? At the moment, this is not clear.

The takeaway from today's PHE data is the B.1.617.2 (VOC-21APR-02 / 'India') variant is *much* more transmissibile than the B.1.1.7 (VOC-20DEC-01 / 'Kent') variant

The Secondary Attack Rate is *66%* higher in the India variant compared to Kent variant (there remains uncertainty)
Here's my interview this morning with @NickFerrariLBC on @LBC @LBCNews discussing the new data on transmissibility of the B.1.617.2 / India / VOC-21APR-02 variant which is becoming dominant in the UK.

28 May 2021 data

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More from @Dr_D_Robertson

27 May
From PHE surveillance report
Antibodies showing up nicely in the 40-somethings
As well as older age groups
Read 4 tweets
25 May
The areas with extra guidance to avoid non-essential travel doesn't make a lot of sense.

A short thread.
Let's look at the list published on Friday.

Here are the areas which have new guidance to avoid non-essential travel to/from these areas.

gov.uk/guidance/covid…
Let's see where they are on the list of B.1.617.2 cases using the latest data from @sangerinstitute

For this, I am *only using the number of sequences in the latest week, week ending 15 May 2021*
covid19.sanger.ac.uk/lineages/raw
Read 9 tweets
23 May
What I think happened with the announcement of new data of the AZ/Pfizer effectiveness against B.1.617.2:

- a press release was issued earlier in the day on Saturday which prompted positive headlines in today's papers

"It's really good", as #Marr has just said

(a quick thread)
This I assume is the press release gov.uk/government/new…
This news was I believe embargoed until 10:30pm yesterday. Note that the press release *does* contain a link to a full preprint of the data.

khub.net/documents/1359…
Read 7 tweets
20 May
Public Health England have published their data for Variants of Concern.

- B.1.617.2 is becoming dominant with 2,111 new cases
- But also increases in these variants of concern
P1 (+30)
B.1.351 (+41)
- New variant under investigation AV.1

nb cumulative chart

... thread
Here is the cumulative chart on a log scale
And here is a heatmap of cases per week excluding colouring the B.1.1.7 ('Kent') variant
Read 9 tweets
20 May
10% of cases reported today were detected in Bolton
(There is surge testing in Bolton, which may explain part of this.)

But cases are very high there with high case rates in children with a bit of a gap then up to 40-44 year olds. (This *could* indicate household transmission between children and their parents.) Fig: @PHE_uk
Increases in cases are not just confined to the under-60s (Fig: PHE dashboard) although the rate of increase is lower in the over-60s.
Read 12 tweets
20 May
20 incidents/outbreaks in care homes last week - although some signs that these produce fewer hospitalizations. Let's hope that continues.
5 incidents/outbreaks in hospitals last week.
Read 11 tweets

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