Boris Johnson is set to hold a press conference on the new variant of Covid this evening.
The Prime Minister will be joined by the chief medical officer Chris Whitty and the chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, Downing Street has said.
What time is the briefing?
The briefing is expected to take place at 4pm amid reports that the Prime Minister could order new travel restrictions for South East England in an attempt to stop it spreading to the rest of the country.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon warns 'preventative action may be necessary' amid fears of new variant Covid
Scientists confirmed that the new variant coronavirus was spreading more rapidly. The chief medical officer for England Professor Chris Whitty said the UK had now informed the World Health Organisation that it had concluded the mutant strain could spread more quickly.
How can I watch the briefing?
The press conference from Downing Street will be televised.
What is the new variant of Covid?
A number of variants have been detected using sequencing studies in the UK.
A specific variant (the D614G variant) has previously been detected in western Europe and North America which is believed to spread more easily but not cause greater illness.
But it is thought this is the first strain that will be investigated in such detail by PHE.
The Covid-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium said it is difficult to predict whether any given mutation is important when it first emerges and that it would take “considerable time and effort to test the effect of many thousands of combinations of mutations”.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon warns 'preventative action may be necessary' amid fears of new variant Covid
What does this mean exactly?
Most of the mutations will not be significant or give cause for concern, but some may give the virus an evolutionary advantage which may lead to higher transmission or mean it is more harmful.
Professor Sir Mark Walport – a member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) – said there was a possibility that it could have a “transmission advantage”.
Jeremy Hunt, a former health secretary, said the government needed "to respond to what is happening on the ground" with hospital admissions rising.
What else has been said by other leaders in the UK?
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said “preventative action may be necessary” to halt the spread of the variant strain of the virus.
Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford said he would chair a meeting of his cabinet later.
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