China News Service, December 15th. According to the "Central News Agency" report, on the 14th local time, British Health Secretary Hancock said that a new mutant virus strain that spreads faster than the current new coronavirus has been found in England and has notified the World Health Organization. (WHO).
He said that the identification of a new mutant virus strain may be related to the rapid spread of the epidemic in southern England.
Preliminary analysis shows that the new mutant virus strain is spreading faster than the current virus. So far, more than 1,000 cases have been found, appearing in nearly 60 different regions, mainly in southern England, with a rapid increase in cases.
Hancock also said that the same virus strain has been found in other countries and has been notified to the WHO.
But he said that there is no sign that the new mutant virus is more deadly than the original virus, and there is no sign that the new mutant virus will invalidate the existing vaccine.
In this regard, Maria Van Kokhoff, the technical director of the WHO health emergency project, said that WHO is collaborating with scientists from all over the world to study each variant. There is currently no evidence that the variant viruses appearing in the UK behave differently. Researchers The neutralizing antibody is being observed for changes.
On the other hand, data released by the British government on the 14th local time showed that there were 20,263 new confirmed cases of new crown in the country, and a total of 1,869666 confirmed cases.
The new crown prevention and control level in the capital, London, has been upgraded from the second level to the highest level three since the 16th local time.