New variant of coronavirus identified - here's everything we know so far as new strain is blamed for fast spread in south of England

The Health Secretary told MPs in Parliament on Monday December, 14 that a new variant of covid has been

What do we know so far?

Addressing the Commons on the Government’s decisions to move large parts of the South East – including the whole of Greater London – into tier three restrictions, the Health Secretary revealed a new strain of the bug had been found.

Matt Hancock said: “Over the last few days, thanks to our world-class genomic capability in the UK, we have identified a new variant of coronavirus which may be associated with the faster spread in the South East of England,” he said.

"Initial analysis suggests that this variant is growing faster than the existing variant.”

Where has the new strain been found?

The majority of the 1,000 cases of the new variant have been found in the south of England, Mr Hancock has said, though cases have been identified in nearly 60 different local authority areas.

And the number of cases is ‘rising rapidly’ the health secretary added.

He said: “Over the last week we have seen very sharp exponential rises in the virus across London, Kent, parts of Essex and Hertfordshire.

"We do not know the extent to which this is because of the new variant but, no matter its cause, we have to take swift and decisive actions which unfortunately is absolutely essential to control this deadly disease while the vaccine is rolled out.”

Similar variants had been identified in other countries over the past few months and the Government has notified the World Health Organisation about the findings.

What does it mean for the vaccine roll-out?

The vaccine roll-out is set to continue as planned and it is believed the vaccine will still protect against this new strain.

Mr Hancock told the Commons “There is currently nothing to suggest this variant is more likely to cause serious disease and the latest clinical advice is that it is highly unlikely this mutation would fail to respond to a vaccine.”

The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers and consequently the advertising that we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news by buying a copy of our newspaper. If you can, please do pick up a copy when you are at the shops. Thank you for your support.