The UK must 'come down hard' on new South African COVID variant says Matt Hancock

The UK must "come down hard" on the South African coronavirus variant, the health secretary has said, after cases with no links to travel were detected.

About 80,000 people in England will be offered urgent tests for the variant.
Residents aged 16 and over in eight areas across Surrey, London, Kent, Hertfordshire, Southport and Walsall are being asked to take tests, regardless of symptoms.Previous cases in the UK were connected to South Africa.

Matt Hancock told a Downing Street news conference on Monday that there was "currently no evidence" to suggest the South African variant was "any more severe, but we need to come down on it hard, and we will".

Mobile testing units and home kits are being sent to the following neighbourhoods:

          W7, N17 and CR4 in London
          WS2 in Walsall
          ME15 in Maidstone, Kent
          PR9 in Southport
          EN10 in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire
          GU21 in Woking

*Subject to Government Review.

Appealing to residents of these postcodes, Mr Hancock said: "It is imperative that you stay at home, and that you get a test, even if you don't have symptoms.

"This is so important so that we can break the chains of the transmission of this new variant, and we've got to bring this virus to heel."
Dr Susan Hopkins, of Public Health England, told the same briefing that three of the vaccines that had been used in trials had proven effective against the South African variant.

She said officials expected other vaccines to have "a similar level of effectiveness, particularly in reducing hospitalisation and death".
Dr Hopkins added that further testing was taking place involving the South African variant so that predictions could be made with "greater robustness".

Prof Jim McManus, the director of public health for Hertfordshire, told the BBC that if every single case was detected, it might be "possible" to eradicate the variant within two weeks.

Asked how confident the government was that the new variant could be contained, Mr Hancock warned it was "not straightforward... there may be further cases we don't know about yet".

He added it was "absolutely vital" that people in the affected areas "minimise all social contact and get a test when the opportunity arises".