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Boris may delay easing of curbs as Delta spreads
Johnson is due to announce on Monday whether the planned lifting of restrictions can go ahead as scheduled on June 21.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday expressed “serious concern” about rising infections of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, reinforcing suggestions that he may delay lifting England’s last remaining lockdown curbs.
Johnson is due to announce on Monday whether the planned lifting of restrictions can go ahead as scheduled on June 21. “It’s clear that the... [Delta] variant is more transmissible and it’s also true that the cases are going up, and that the levels of hospitalisation are going up,” Johnson told Sky News.
China running trials on nasal spray vaccines
China is conducting clinical trials on a Covid-19 vaccine that can be inhaled - the second such one undergoing testing in the country, say media reports. The inhalable vaccine is being jointly developed by researchers from Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences, affiliated to the People’s Liberation Army, and China’s CanSino Biologics, Xinhua news agency reported.
Chinese experts find new coronaviruses in bats
Chinese researchers said they have found a batch of new coronaviruses in bats. The viruses include one that genetically may be the second closest yet to the Covid-19 virus, CNN reported.
In a report published in the journal Cell, Chinese researchers from Shandong University said, “We assembled 24 novel coronavirus genomes from different bat species, including four Sars-CoV-2 like coronaviruses.”
