England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty on Saturday announced that the United Kingdom has identified a new variant of the coronavirus ...
England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty on Saturday announced that the United Kingdom has identified a new variant of the coronavirus, which “can spread more quickly” than prior strains of the virus, prompting Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose fresh restrictions on parts of the country, reported Reuters.
London said it had informed the World Health Organization of its findings, according to BBC.
“As announced on Monday, the UK has identified a new variant of Covid-19 through Public Health England’s genomic surveillance,” Whitty said in a statement. “As a result of the rapid spread of the new variant, preliminary modelling data and rapidly rising incidence rates in the South East, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) now consider that the new strain can spread more quickly.”
His warning followed a meeting of representatives from the UK’s four nations to discuss the new strain.
The United Kingdom has reported roughly 24,061 new Covid-19 cases every day, based on a weekly average, which is a more than 40% increase compared to a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The country reported 20,10,077 cases and 67,177 deaths as of Sunday.
Public health officials told BBC that the new variant, which has been identified and is known...
