British Health Minister Matt Hancock announced the discovery of a new strain of the emerging corona virus (SARS-CoV-2) that is spreading faster than usual in Britain.
Hancock warned that the new breed was out of control, stressing that England would move to its highest levels of restrictions.
Where the British government announced to keep tightening restrictions and closures at a time when it was scheduled to roll back from the three-tier system that was imposed last Wednesday, due to the significant increase in cases.
The government has taken measures to alleviate the spread of the virus, especially this coming Christmas holiday, and more than 16 million Britons remain in their homes, and police have been deployed to prevent travel outside London.
Does the new strain fail the vaccine?
On the new variant on the virus, Hancock stressed that “there is currently no indication that this alternative could cause serious disease, and the mutation is unlikely to fail to respond to the vaccine.”
Hancock told members of parliament that the sharp and accelerating increase in the virus throughout London and some British regions is due to the new strain of the emerging corona virus.
Hancock informed the World Health Organization of the developments, at a time when public health scientists were analyzing the data, and its results will become evident upon completion of their analysis in the Burton Down laboratory in England, he said.
Emerging scientific evidence suggests that the new species – which Hancock said has also appeared in Australia and continental Europe – could spread more quickly than previous strains into circulation and is the reason behind the increase in infections in recent days.
“We understand that the virus does not cause a more serious disease,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s epidemiologist, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr program.
Britain was the first country to start giving the (Pfizer Covid-19) vaccine, as part of a comprehensive vaccination program.
