New mutant strain
South African bug ‘ more contagious’
A “HIGHLY concerning” new Covid- 19 mutant from South Africa has been found in England.
Ministers fear the latest variant is even more infectious than the Kent strain that led to Christmas restrictions being tightened last week.
The latest mutation was discovered in two people in the UK who had been in contact with people who travelled between the two countries in the past few weeks.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told a Downing Street press briefing yesterday that the discovery would result in urgent new quarantine rules for recent visitors from South Africa.
He said: “This new variant is highly concerning because it is yet more transmissible and it appears to have mutated further than the new variant discovered in the UK.”
Anyone in Britain who has been in South Africa in the past fortnight, and those who have been in close contact with someone from the nation in the last fortnight, must quarantine immediately, Mr Hancock added.
“They must restrict all contact with any other person whatsoever.”
He said the measures would be “temporary” while the new strain is investigated at Porton Down laboratories in Wiltshire.
Latest figures suggest the
South African strain was behind a record number of people being hospitalised there. Infectious diseases expert Dr Susan Hopkins told the No10 press conference: “The new variant in the UK which we’ve identified is very different to the variant in South Africa, it’s got different mutations. Both of them look like they are more transmissible. We have more evidence on the transmission for the UK variant because we’ve been studying that with great detail with academic partners.
“We’re still learning about the South African variant and you’ve heard already the measures that we’re introducing to ensure that we quarantine people who are coming in from South Africa.
Emerging
“Therefore, we are pretty confident, actually, that this system we have in place will help control the spread.”
The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, said there was a growing fear that health services would be unable to cope during winter due to the Covid variants found in the UK.
BMA council chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul said: “The rocketing case numbers mean that moving more of the country into Tier 4 is a necessary step to control the virus and prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed to the point that local services are unable to meet the needs of seriously ill patients.
“With a possible third strain emerging in South Africa, the second strain in the UK gaining ground, and some GPs here reporting delays in deliveries of the vaccine, we are in a very precarious
position.” He added: “The measures are necessary to protect our loved ones and those most vulnerable in our society.
“But tighter restrictions are also needed if we want our fragile health service to have any chance of coping with the incredible demand it is experiencing.”
Peak
The latest mutation was revealed as the Government’s daily figures showed a further 744 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid- 19, the highest figure since April 29, during the first peak.
An extra 39,237 cases were recorded by 9am yesterday.
It is the highest figure reported on a single day throughout the whole pandemic but that is partly down to much wider testing than during the first wave. It is thought new infections are rising by up to six per cent every day from a top rate of four per cent last week.
Mr Hancock warned that Covid- 19 was spreading at a “dangerous rate” across large parts of England.
He added: “Just as we’ve got a tiered system in place that was able to control this virus, we’ve discovered a new, more contagious virus, a variant that is spreading at a dangerous rate.
“Against this backdrop of rising infections, rising hospitalisations and rising numbers of people dying from coronavirus, it is absolutely vital that we act.
“We simply cannot have the kind of Christmas that we all yearn for.”
The crucial R number – or reproductive rate of the virus – has risen to 1.1 to 1.3 in the UK, the Government’s Sage advisers say. This means every infected person is infecting between 1.1 and 1.3 others.