INTERNATIONAL - NEW SOUTH AFRICAN COVID-19 VARIANT FOUND IN LONDON AND NORTH OF ENGLAND

ONE person in London and another in the North West of England have caught the new coronavirus variant from South Africa.

The unidentified people are the first known in the UK to be diagnosed with the rapidly spreading strain.

They are thought to have been in contact with people who have travelled between South Africa and the UK in recent weeks.

In response to the arrival of the "more infectious" new strain, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock has ordered anyone who has been in South Africa in the past two weeks to quarantine immediately.

Anyone who has been in contact with those travellers must also quarantine and have “no contact with anybody else”.

At a Downing Street press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Hancock said the South African variant is highly concerning because it is “more transmissible than the new variant discovered in the UK”.

The UK’s new strain - which scientists say is 70 per cent more easily spread - is already “out of control” and led to the invention of the new Tier 4, of which 43 per cent of the England population are in.

via - THESUN