Emergence of COVID-19’s new variant puts London in Tier 3 lockdown

A new variant of coronavirus has emerged in some parts of England, which is spreading rapidly.

At least 60 different local authorities reported COVID infections caused by the new variant, said Health Secretary Matt Hancock. He added that an update had been sent to the World Health Organization, and scientists of the UK were doing thorough examinations.

World Health Organisation has said that no evidence has yet emerged to support the fact that this variant will influence the effectiveness of vaccines against the disease.

There has been a sudden and exponential surge in coronavirus infections across London, Kent, parts of Essex and Hertfordshire over the last week.

Over 1,000 cases have appeared with this variant predominantly in the South of England.

This has given rise to many questions; Is this mutated virus more deadly? Will it interfere with diagnostics? How will this variant of the virus affect the effectiveness of the vaccine? Sadly none of these questions has any answers to them.

For now, there are no new foreseeable symptoms of being a more critical disease, and the hopes of the experts are that the vaccines will be able to shield people against the new variant of COVID-19 as well. The new variant, however, is growing at a rapid rate. It has also been stated that this new variant is spreading at a quicker pace compared to the ones that already exist.

Not only this but the prevalence of Tier 3 lockdown can now be seen in the London city owing to the upsurge of cases in order to contain the outbreak of this virus any further.