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The British Minister for Health, Matt hancock, announced this Wednesday that a second variant of coronavirus “even more contagious” than the strain that was reported last week.
This version of SARS-CoV-2, linked to people who have traveled to the UK from South Africa, is “very disturbing” and seems contain more mutations than has begun to spread rapidly in southern England.
Before the appearance of this strain, the British Government will impose “immediate” restrictions on travel to South Africa and strict quarantines on people who have returned from that country in the last two weeks and their contacts.
So far the UK has identified two cases of that new strain in their territory, both in individuals close to people who had traveled in recent weeks.
“We are incredibly grateful to the Government of South Africa for their scientific rigor and for the openness and transparency with which they have acted when the new variant has been discovered here,” Hancock told a news conference.
The minister announced at the same time that more areas of England will enter the maximum level of restrictions against the pandemic in the coming days, given the expansion in recent days of the strain that was reported last week, which apparently is transmitted to faster than previously known versions of the virus.
Following the detection of this variant, more than fifty countries have limited travel from the UK.
Epidemiological situation in the United Kingdom
According to the latest official figures, infections in British territory have increased by 61.2 percent in the last seven days, compared to the previous seven.
In England, there are already 17,709 admitted with covid, closer and closer to the 18,974 hospitalized at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic, on April 12.
“This Christmas and the beginning of 2021 is going to be a tough period. The new variant makes everything much more difficult because it spreads much faster. But we must not give up, we know that we can control this virus,” said the Minister of Health.
Hancock also reported that the British regulator has already received the necessary information to review the approval of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
“The vaccine is our way out of all this. Despite how hard Christmas and winter are going to be, we know that the transformative power of science is helping us find a way, “he argued.
