As India set records for covid-19 deaths, B.1.617.2 variant worries spread globally

Sharon Peacock, director of the U.K.’s Covid-19 Genomics Consortium, told reporters that various measures, from travel bans to contact tracing, could buy some time. Even so, a fast-spreading variant such as B.1.617.2 would have “a biological passport for international travel and global spread” — meaning international spread was likely, perhaps inevitable.