Covid-19: Up to 75% of new UK cases could be Indian variant - Matt Hancock

[Northerner]

Up to three quarters of new UK Covid cases could be of the Indian variant, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.

Public Health England data shows cases of the variant have risen by 3,535 to 6,959 since last week.

Mr Hancock told a Downing Street briefing that the government had always expected cases to rise as restrictions were eased.

But he said it was "critical" to monitor the link between cases and hospitalisations.

On Thursday, a further 3,542 coronavirus cases and 10 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported in the UK.

It is the second day in a row the number of new Covid cases has topped 3,000 - the first time infections have reached this level since mid-April.

Over the last seven days, cases are up 20.5% compared with the week before.

Covid-19: Up to 75% of new UK cases could be Indian variant - Matt Hancock

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says it is "critical" to monitor the link between cases and hospitalisations.

www.bbc.co.uk

Taken hold very quickly

 

[pm133]

That figure sounds very dodgy to me.

Quite honestly, I wouldn't trust a single word that came out of Hancock's mouth.
He's shown himself to be a bare-faced liar.

This sounds like an excellent piece of abuse of statistics to try and re-focus everyone on covid and away from him.

Unless I hear this from a credible source, I'm happy to basically ignore it.

ETA. Yeah, the words "up to" and "could be" are the key weasel words which should raise credibility red flags.