UK Covid-19 variant ‘may be more deadly’: Johnson

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson said early evidence suggests the variant of coronavirus that emerged in the country may be more deadly.“Besides spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant – the variant that was first identified in London and the southeast – may be associated with a higher degree of mortality,” he told at a press briefing at Downing Street on Friday (Saturday local time).He said the impact of this new variant means the National Health Service (NHS) is under such intense pressure.Johnson, however, optimist that the vaccines are still expected to work although remains huge uncertainty around the numbers.He made the remarks after the new data from mathematicians showed that the new Covid-19 variant has already spread widely across the UK, increasing the number of virus cases and deaths.However, UK’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance described the data so far as “not yet strong”.“I want to stress that there’s a lot of uncertainty around these numbers and we need more work to get a precise handle on...
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British PM Boris Johnson's presence on Republic Day will be symbolic of new era: India

India on Tuesday said that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's presence at the Republic Day celebrations next month will be "symbolic of a new era".Calling it a great honour, UK's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who arrived in New Delhi on a four-day visit on Tuesday, said that Prime Minister Johnson has accepted India's "very generous" invite to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations next month. "I'm pleased that PM Boris Johnson has invited PM Modi to join the UK-hosted G7 summit next year. The British PM has also accepted the very generous invitation to attend India's Republic Day celebrations in January, which is a great honour," he said this afternoon.This will be Johnson's first major foreign visit since he took charge last year. In a statement, he said that he is "absolutely delighted to be visiting India next year at the start of an exciting year for Global Britain, and look forward to delivering the quantum leap in our bilateral relationship that Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and I have pledged to achieve."India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said...
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Modi accepts Britain's G7 summit invitation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday accepted the invitation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to be part of the G7 meeting of the world's most advanced economies, to be chaired by the UK in 2021, seeking to build a wider alliance against China's growing power.British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab handed over a letter from Johnson, inviting the Prime Minister to the G7 meeting.Modi thanked Raab and accepted the invitation, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) confirmed in a statement on Wednesday.The development comes after Johnson's office earlier announced that it had extended the offer to Indian, South Korean and Australian leaders to take part in the G7 meeting, "delivering the Prime Minister's ambition to work with a group of like-minded democracies to advance shared interests and tackle common challenges".Recalling his recent telephone conversation with British PM, Modi stressed the importance of the India-UK partnership in the post-Covid world.He called for an ambitious and outcome-oriented 360-degree roadmap covering trade and investment, defence and security, migration...
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