British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Sunday that the government has imposed a strict Christmas lockdown in London and southeast England because a new strain of the coronavirus was “out of control”. Scientists first discovered the new variant in a patient in September, Susan Hopkins of Public Health England told Sky News. Public Health England then again notified the government on Friday when modeling revealed the full seriousness of the new strain, she said. She confirmed the figure given by Johnson that the new virus strain could be 70 percent more transmissible while saying this was an initial figure. London Mayor Sadiq Khan told Sky News that London now has the same number of inpatients with the virus as during the peak of the first wave in April.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer December 20, 2020 13:30 UTC