‘Delta plus’: what we know so far about India’s new Covid ‘variant of concern’

Strain feared to be more infectious than original Delta variant has reached UK

Patients queue for a vaccination in Noida, India
Patients queue for a vaccination in Noida, India
(Image credit: Anindito Mukherjee/Getty Images)

A new Covid-19 mutation of the highly contagious Delta variant has been circulating in the UK for weeks, newly published official data shows.

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Joe Evans is the world news editor at TheWeek.co.uk. He joined the team in 2019 and held roles including deputy news editor and acting news editor before moving into his current position in early 2021. He is a regular panellist on The Week Unwrapped podcast, discussing politics and foreign affairs. 

Before joining The Week, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the UK and Ireland for German newspapers and magazines. A series of features on Brexit and the Irish border got him nominated for the Hostwriter Prize in 2019. Prior to settling down in London, he lived and worked in Cambodia, where he ran communications for a non-governmental organisation and worked as a journalist covering Southeast Asia. He has a master’s degree in journalism from City, University of London, and before that studied English Literature at the University of Manchester.