England's Chief Medical Officer has said the UK has informed the World Health Organisation that the new variant coronavirus can spread more rapidly.
Professor Chris Whitty’s comments come as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to host a meeting of senior ministers to discuss tougher new restrictions.
Prof Whitty said: "As announced on Monday, the UK has identified a new variant of Covid-19 through Public Health England's genomic surveillance. "As a result of the rapid spread of the new variant, preliminary modelling data and rapidly rising incidence rates in the South East, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) now consider that the new strain can spread more quickly. "We have alerted the World