Two New Cases of Covid Variant from South Africa Discovered in U.K.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed tougher regulations across a swath of England in an effort to stamp down on the mutant strain of coronavirus that’s spreading quickly across the country.

Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, most of Hampshire and the remainder of Essex will now face the strictest rules in the government’s 4-tier system, from 00:01 a.m. on Dec. 26, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday in a press conference.

They join London and southeast England, meaning non-essential shops will have to close and socializing is further curtailed.

The new variant “is spreading at a dangerous rate,” said Hancock, putting the rise in cases in the past week at 57%. “The direction is clear and in many cases quite stark.”

The government is struggling to bring the virus back under control after the new mutant strain began spreading rapidly in London and surrounding areas. After an England-wide lockdown last month halted growth in infections, the virus has since started spreading exponentially again, risking overwhelming the National Health Service as cases tick upwards.

The U.K. reported 39,237 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the biggest daily increase since the pandemic began. Another 744 deaths were reported within 28 days of a positive test, the highest since the end of April.

The new coronavirus variant, which emerged in southeast England in September, has alarmed scientists and governments around the world because early analysis suggests it may be as much as 70% more transmissible than other circulating strains. Countries including France temporarily suspended travel from the U.K. in response.

Hancock also said that two new cases of an even more transmissible variant originating in South Africa have so far been detected in the U.K. He told people who have recently returned form South Africa to go into quarantine.

Across the U.K., the reproduction factor of the virus -- the so-called R number -- is now between 1.1 and 1.3, the government said in a statement. That means every 10 infected people spread the virus to another 11 to 13 people.

The rate has increased since November, when a lockdown in England helped push it below 1, meaning the outbreak was shrinking. The situation is now particularly acute in London and eastern England, where the R may be as high as 1.5, according to Wednesday’s statement.

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