Announcing the development at a press briefing where he outlined further restrictions in south and east England, Hancock said there are two cases of the new variant in the UK, both contacts of cases who have travelled from South Africa.

 

"This virus is yet more transmissible and appears to have mutated further than the new virus," he said, the BBC reported.

 

The new cases have been quarantined, and restrictions on travel from South Africa have been imposed, Hancock said, appealing to anyone who has been in South Africa in the past fortnight or is a close contact of someone who has been to South Africa in the last fortnight to quarantine themselves immediately.