Efforts to tackle virus in UK amid worries on variant

A UK health expert warned on Monday there was a "significant chance" the British government could push back plans to lift restrictions later this month due to a fast-spreading coronavirus variant in the UK. The strain, first identified in India, accounts for a majority of new cases in the U.K., which is seeing a rise in infections after weeks of decline.

Scientists say the variant is more transmissible than even the previously dominant strain first found in the U.K. but current vaccines are effective against it. Many scientists are urging the British government to delay plans to lift social distancing and other restrictions on June 21, arguing that more people need to be vaccinated before measures can be eased safely.

Professor Adam Finn, a member of the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation which advises the government over the coronavirus measures, said the initial dates for when restrictions would be lifted were to given to create a "sense of structure."

He warned these were always subject to change depending on what would happen with the virus. The government will announce its decision on whether restrictions will be lifted on June 14, a week before the easing would take place. On Monday the government pushed ahead with further measures in order to contain the variant.

In Bolton, which had the highest rates of the new variant, members of the armed forces were knocking on doors, carrying out further testing in an attempt to try and control the spread of the virus. British health authorities also aimed to vaccinate 15,000 more in one day at London’s Twickenham rugby stadium.

The Twickenham walk-in vaccination center offered jabs without an appointment on Monday to people from northwest London, a hotspot for the Indian-identified variant. Three-quarters of U.K. adults have had one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and almost half have had both doses.