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LONDON – England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty confirmed on Saturday that a new variant of the coronavirus that appeared in the country could spread faster and called for increased public vigilance to reduce transmission.
Whitty said London had informed the World Health Organization of its findings.
READ: Mkhize says new COVID-19 variant fuels second wave
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Monday that scientists had identified a “new variant” in southern England that could be causing infections to spread more quickly.
Britain has seen an increase in cases and hospital admissions this month and Prime Minister Boris Johnson was scheduled to give a news conference on the virus situation on Saturday afternoon.
The prime minister would reportedly announce new travel restrictions for London and south-east England in the run-up to Christmas.
“As a result of the rapid spread of the new variant, preliminary modeling data and rapidly increasing incidence rates in the Southeast (an expert body that advises the government) now believe that the new strain may spread more rapidly,” Whitty said.
“We have alerted the World Health Organization,” he said, but added: “There is no current evidence to suggest that the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or affects vaccines and treatments, although urgent work is being done to confirm this. “.
Whitty cautioned that the new evidence made it “more vital than ever” that the public do everything possible to reduce transmission.
READ: Professor Karim: New variant is cause for concern
On Friday, the UK government reported 28,507 new positive tests daily. Cases last week grew 40.9 percent compared to the previous week.
More than 1.98 million people tested positive in the UK.
People in Wales and Northern Ireland are ready to enter new locks after Christmas.
Johnson has refused to rule out a new lockdown in England, saying on Friday: “We are very hopeful that we can avoid something like this.”
“But the reality is that infection rates have risen a lot in recent weeks,” he said.
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