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Covid Indian variant: 'High potential' for community spread

PA Media Vaccination in BlackburnPA Media
Covid vaccinations have been encouraged in English towns such as Blackburn amid concern about Indian variants

There is "very high potential" for the Indian Covid variant of concern to "establish community transmission" in Wales, a top health official has said.

Dr Giri Shankar, from Public Health Wales (PHW), said there was evidence of infections unrelated to travel.

But PHW has said most cases are still travel-related, or to close contacts of people who have been abroad.

If community infections became severe, putting pressure on the NHS, lockdown easing would be reconsidered, he said.

Wales currently has a low number of cases of the variant of concern, with a total of 28 reported on Thursday.

Dr Shankar told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast: "Compared to last week and the week before, we are seeing evidence of infection in non-travel related cases.

"Whether that will then progress to establish community transmission remains to be seen, but there is very high potential for that to happen."

Graphic showing Covid variants in Wales
Case rates across Wales are low, but the dominant variant is still the Kent variant

Officials were "keeping a very close eye on" the impact of community transmission on the NHS, he said, and "whether the infections will result in serious complications, hospitalisations, intensive care admissions of ventilation".

"We have not yet seen that in England, where there are more than 3,000 cases now, therefore, we'll have to wait and see," Dr Shankar said.

"If the case numbers are high but they're mostly mild cases, we'd like to continue with the vaccination programme and get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible, so that we can prevent further complications.

"However, if the community cases then become progressively severe and impact on health services, resulting in complications, we'll have to seriously look at our planned roadmap for relaxation easements."