UK's Delta rollercoaster flips between virus horror, hope

 Published: 11:32, July 31, 2021 | Updated: 19:27, July 31, 2021

UK's Delta rollercoaster flips between virus horror, hope

By Agencies

In this June 19, 2021 photo, residents wait to be inoculated at a mass vaccination event at the London Stadium in London, UK. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

OTTAWA / ADDIS ABABA / BUENOS AIRES / SANTIAGO / HAVANA / KINSHASA / RABAT / JOHANNESBURG / DAR ES SALAAM / KAMPALA / LONDON - Two weeks ago, the Delta variant was ripping through the UK, stoking fears of a record wave of COVID-19 clobbering one of the world’s most highly vaccinated countries.

Then, almost overnight, daily cases plummeted, renewing hope that the pandemic’s end - at least in some parts of the world - is within sight.

Now, with the US and much of the world grappling with Delta’s fury, people are looking to the UK for answers about how their respective outbreaks might unfold. But there’s no single answer, as mutations and varied vaccination coverage create conditions for swings in virus rates. While experts agree on some factors in the UK story, they’re also struggling to make sense of what’s truly accounted for the sudden reversal and whether it’s really time to relax.

“This is a remarkably rapid decline and one that few anticipated,” said Martin McKee, professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who’s scrutinizing everything from the possibility that young people are skipping COVID-19 tests to older people renewing their commitments to social distancing to the virus running up against a wall of immunity in the country. “Overall, it is a bit of a mystery.”

New daily cases in the UK reached almost 55,000 on July 17, before dropping back below 25,000 earlier this week. The situation shifts day to day, but the weekly trend certainly looks promising.