OREANDA-NEWS. Another type of coronavirus infection has been discovered in the UK. This was announced during a press conference by the country's Minister of Health Matt Hancock, quoted by the Independent newspaper.

According to the head of the Ministry of Health, the specified type of SARS-CoV-2 was brought to the kingdom from South Africa. Hancock said that at the moment two cases of infection with a new variant of coronavirus have been confirmed in the country, both patients are under close medical supervision.

Against this background, the British authorities intend to impose entry restrictions on those arriving from the Republic of South Africa. Those who have arrived from there within the past two weeks are asked to immediately self-isolate. According to the minister, such measures are temporary while specialists from the laboratory at Porton Down are studying a new strain of the virus.

It’s already the second mutated strain of Covid-19 announced by the UK authorities in the space of just two weeks.

"This new variant is of serious concern as it is even faster transmitted and appears to have mutated more strongly than the new variant previously found in the UK," Hancock claims.

In this regard, the head of the Ministry of Health said that from December 26, the authorities will expand the effect of restrictive measures introduced in the country to a larger number of regions in the south-east of England. Restrictions will fully affect the counties of Essex, Surrey, Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Hampshire, West Sussex and Norfolk.

On December 14, Matt Hancock announced the discovery in the UK of a new type of coronavirus, which, according to him, could cause a sharp increase in the spread of the disease in several regions of the country.