Covid-19: Another variant of coronavirus found in UK from South Africa

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a statement on Wednesday that another new coronavirus variant has been detected in the UK.

In recent days, the world witnessed the discovery of an infectious and distinct variant of COVID-19 that spreads rapidly. The coronavirus strain, which surfaced in the UK recently, put the world on a high alert. The new lineage code-named as B.1.1.7 has widely tracked in the recent cases in the UK. Various countries have halted flights to and from the United Kingdom following the discovery of the new variant of SARS-CoV-2.

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a statement on Wednesday that another new coronavirus variant which seems to have undergone future mutation and is more transmissible has been detected in the UK.

He added that the two cases of the new variant of COVID-19 in the UK are both contacts of cases who have travelled from South Africa.

South Africa's health department said last week that a new variant of the coronavirus has been detected that is driving a second wave of infections.

"Thanks to the impressive genomic capability of the South Africans we've detected two cases of another new variant of coronavirus here in the UK," Hancock told a media briefing.

"This virus is yet more transmissible and appears to have mutated further than the new virus," he said, the BBC reported.

Britain is already fighting the spread of an earlier mutated strain which is up to 70 per cent more transmissible.

To mitigate the effects of this new virus, people infected with the new variant of COVID-19 have been quarantined. The government has imposed travel restrictions from South Africa as well.

Hancock has also appealed to anyone who has been in South Africa in the past fortnight or is a close contact of someone who has been to South Africa in the last fortnight to quarantine themselves.

(with inputs from IANS)