Six cases of the new Covid-19 Omicron variant have been identified in Scotland, taking the UK’s total to 11 following three cases in England last week and two in London on Monday. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the latest two cases found in Camden and Wandsworth areas of London have links to travel in southern Africa.
Earlier on Monday, the Scottish Government said four cases have been found in Lanarkshire and two in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area. While all of England’s detected cases have a travel link with southern Africa, some of the people identified in Scotland have no travel history and may have caught the potentially highly transmissible variant in the community.
“On some of the cases, we are aware that there is no travel history involved. So, what that tells us is that there must be a degree of community transmission of this particular strain of the virus,” Scotland Deputy First Minister John Swinney told the BBC in reference to the cases detected in Scotland.
But the Minister reiterated that it is too early to say whether even tougher social distancing norms may be required against what is feared to be a potentially highly infectious variant and its response to current vaccines is yet to be fully determined.
