This paper presents a method used to rapidly assess the incursion and the establishment of community transmission of suspected SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern Delta (lineage B.1.617.2) into the UK in April and May 2021. The method described is independent of any genetically sequenced data, and so avoids the inherent lag times involved in sequencing of cases. We show that, between 1 April and 12 May 2021, there was a strong correlation between local authorities with high numbers of imported positive cases from India and high COVID-19 case rates, and that this relationship holds as we look at finer geographic detail. Further, we also show that Bolton was an outlier in the relationship, having the highest COVID-19 case rates despite relatively few importations. We use an artificial neural network trained on demographic data, to show that observed importations in Bolton were consistent with similar areas. Finally, using an SEIR transmission model, we show that imported positive cases were a contributing factor to persistent transmission in a number of local authorities, however they could not account for increased case rates observed in Bolton. As such, the outbreak of Delta variant in Bolton was likely not a result of direct importation from overseas, but rather secondary transmission from other regions within the UK.

Doping of thin body Si becomes very essential topic due to increasing interest of forming source/drain regions in fully depleted planar silicon-on-isolator (SOI) devices or vertical Fin field-effect-transistors (FinFETs). To diminish the role of the short-channel-control-effect (SCE) the Si layers thicknesses target the 10 nm range. In this paper many aspects of thin Si body doping are discussed: dopant retention, implantation-related amorphization, thin body recrystallization, sheet resistance (Rs) and carrier mobility in crystalline or amorphized material, impact of the annealing ambient on Rs for various SOI thicknesses. The complexity of 3D geometry for vertical Fin and the vicinity of the extended surface have an impact on doping strategies that are significantly different than for planar bulk devices.

Sheet resistance (Rs) reductions are presented for antimony and arsenic doped layers produced in strained Si. Results re-emphasise the Rs reduction for As comes purely as a result of mobility improvement whereas for Sb, a superior lowering is observed from improvements in both mobility and activation. For the first time, strain is shown to enhance the activation of dopant atoms whilst Sb is seen to create stable ultra-shallow junctions. Our results propose Sb as a viable alternative to As for the creation of highly activated, low resistance ultra-shallow junctions for use with strain-engineered CMOS devices.