Britain is host to another mutant coronavirus variant from South Africa, minister says

Already battling one new, possibly more infectious coronavirus variant, the United Kingdom announced Wednesday that it is now host to another perhaps even more transmissible strain of the virus.

Dozens of countries have closed their doors to the U.K. and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has effectively canceled Christmas for millions in an attempt to contain the new variant. The government’s scientific advisers are almost certain it is more infectious than others in circulation.

On Wednesday, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock told a press conference that a second variant — similar to the British strain but first arising in South Africa — had now been detected in two U.K. cases.

“Both are contacts of cases that have traveled from South Africa in the past few weeks,” Hancock said. “This new variant is highly concerning, because it is yet more transmissible and it appears to have mutated further than the new variant that has been discovered in the U.K.”

Hancock said Britain was quarantining any contacts of these cases, restricting travel with South Africa, and telling anyone who’s been to the country in the past two weeks to quarantine themselves immediately.

Source : NBC News