WESTMINSTER, London, England, December 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Britain’s Health Secretary announced today that a new variant of the Covid-19 coronavirus has been detected in the country.
Matthew Hancock, the Conservative government’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, told the House of Commons that the “new variant of Covid-19 had been identified over the last few days. He believes it may be connected to “the faster spread [of the virus] in the south-east of England.”
“Initial analysis suggests that this variant is growing faster than the current variant,” Hancock said.
Over a thousand cases with this new strain of coronavirus have been identified in the U.K., he added, mostly in the south of England although “cases have been identified in nearly 60 different local authority areas” (regions). It is apparently spreading rapidly.
Britain has informed the World Health Organization of the development.
Hancock stressed that the mutation was not likely to be more dangerous than the original virus and that it would probably also respond to the vaccine. At present, the United Kingdom has begun it’s COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, beginning with giving the elderly and health care workers the Pfizer vaccine.
The Health Secretary also asserted that residents of Britain must “follow the rules” and “take personal responsibility not to spread this virus.”
Following an uptick in “positive” coronavirus tests in the city of London, on Wednesday the nation’s capital will be placed in “Tier 3”, the most restrictive of England’s lockdown zones. This means that all indoor entertainments and hotels in London will have to close, and that restaurants will once again have to offer only take-out and delivery services.
Developing…
LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page. View it here.