A mutated form of Covid has also been found in Wales, Scotland, Denmark and Australia

The new strain of coronavirus that Matt Hancock discovered yesterday has spread to Scotland and Wales after it emerged in England, scientists say.

Members of the British Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK) announced today that the variant apparently originated in England and then spread across the UK.

And it was warned that it appears to be spreading faster than the dominant strain, which was imported by vacationers from Spain in the summer and which now accounts for the majority of infections.

The health minister announced the existence of the tribe yesterday and said it was linked to an explosion of cases in London and the southeast.

Experts who examined the variant of the virus today said there was no clear evidence that this version could spread faster, but that it was gaining weight far faster than any other strain in the country they are "concerned about."

At least 1,000 people have been found to have this form of the virus since it was discovered in late September, but their locations have not been disclosed.

Neither Public Health England nor COG-UK, the organizations that discovered the strain, could confirm where it was found.

Online lab records suggest that the first instance of the virus came from the government's Lighthouse Lab in Milton Keynes on Sept. 20, and PHE said yesterday that the person who provided the swab was from Kent.

There are some concerns that the mutated strain might be a form that the immune system doesn't recognize well and that vaccines might not be as effective. The British Covid-19 Genomics UK consortium said it is investigating this and is also checking whether any of these mutations contribute to increased transmission or not.

Monitoring the strain shows that it is growing faster than all other strains except the dominant strain and making up an increasing proportion of the total infections (the new strain is shown in pink and the timeline runs from May to December).

The mutation of the coronavirus caused a change in the spike protein on its outside (shown in red), which the beetle uses to attach itself to the human body (original illustration of the virus by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ).

Professor Tom Connor, a genomics and virus expert at Cardiff University and a member of COG-UK, said, "It's pretty clear that it has spread beyond (south-east England) and is spreading to other parts of the country."

A history of the virus published online by the Neher Lab at the University of Basel in Switzerland shows how it has become more common over time.

Progress has been slow according to the virus' first official records in September, and it wasn't until the UK's second wave began in late October that cases exploded.

This could be because the strain of the virus is spreading faster and cases are rising faster, according to scientists – or because it was simply found more frequently when cases were rising naturally.

At the time of the first sample, the UK had an average of just 3,700 positive coronavirus tests per day. By early November, when the samples were arriving thick and fast, the average number of positive results had risen to 23,000 per day.

Professor Nick Loman, an expert on microbial genomics at the University of Birmingham, said in a briefing this afternoon: “We have no evidence that this came from any other country. It kind of comes out of nowhere.

"We have a long gap between the first cases we saw with this variant in late September (and the recent surge in cases) … it is more likely that they developed in the UK but we don't know."

"Right now there are very few examples of this in other countries – it really is kind of a British phenomenon."

And he said the reason the strain had now been made public is because it was spreading so quickly.

While it still makes up a small fraction of the cases, it is quickly becoming a larger factor and this could be because it is spreading faster than other strains.

The scientists admitted it could be a coincidence, but said they would expect other strains to see similar voltage spikes that they don't.

The variant named N501Y seems to be spreading faster than the dominant variety (20A.EU1) when it came to the UK from Spain in the summer.

Calling it "unusual", Professor Loman added, "This one swept the country and pretty quickly became the dominant variant and remains the dominant variant in the UK." The first modeling shows that this is growing faster than this. & # 39;

Professor Connor said, “There are a large number of circulating lines in the UK, but the most important thing to think about is to watch the rise over time.

"The results that originally came from the modeling were that in our experience this seems a bit unusual."

The UK Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said yesterday evening: “It appears to be in one area of ​​the country, particularly Kent and parts of London (where cases are growing rapidly).

"Now we don't know what cause and effect are. Will it become more frequent because the rate of increase is faster in one part of the country and therefore there is inevitably a higher proportion (of the burden)?"

& # 39; Or is it possible that this virus (strain) can be more easily transmitted by itself? It is not immediately clear. "

In a report on the new strain released by COG-UK yesterday evening, experts said, "It is difficult to predict whether a particular mutation is important when it first appears, given the continued emergence of new mutations."

They added, "Efforts are being made to confirm whether or not any of these mutations are contributing to increased transmission."

A faster spread of the virus currently seems to be the only possible danger of this mutation.

Scientists say it is unlikely to make the disease worse or affect vaccine effectiveness.

Professor Adam Finn, a pediatrician at the University of Bristol and a member of the Government's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, said on BBC Radio 4 this morning: “We tend to see viruses mutate to become more contagious because that is An advantage for them, but I think it's very important that people realize that pathogens tend to stop becoming virulent (causing disease).

"So it's not really to be expected that this virus will kill you or make you seriously ill over time.

"In fact, it is beneficial for pathogens to be more benign because their hosts survive longer and are more contagious, and that helps them spread."

One of the concerns about the mutation was that antibodies developed for one strain of the virus might not work on the mutated version.

Antibodies are substances of the immune system that can attack and destroy the coronavirus in the body. People who have once had the virus – or a vaccine – make and keep the antibodies to protect them in case the virus re-enters their bodies so they can get rid of it before they get sick.

But they are extremely specific. Antibodies to one virus generally won't work for another, and may not even work for other strains of the same virus. That's why people don't get immune to the flu – because influenza viruses mutate so often.

There is a possibility that antibodies to the strain may not work without the virus mutation for the new strain, although it does not appear to be working yet.

As a result, a vaccine may not work as well or people may be at greater risk of contracting the virus a second time.

Professor Finn added, “All of the vaccines we are currently receiving are based on the spike protein.

'They induce immunity directed to many different parts of this protein and any mutation would tend to change the shape and conformation of just one part. So it would be extremely unfortunate if a mutation resulted in a complete breakdown in the protective value of a particular vaccine. & # 39;

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced the new strain of the virus to the public yesterday and said it could cause Covid-19 to spread faster

A timeline of the samples published on Nextstrain.org shows that the mutation first appeared in late September but didn't spread until November when England's second wave really took off (Image: the leftmost green dot marks the first recorded instance of the Strain derived from Milton Keynes Lighthouse Lab, UK)

Some scientists, who responded to the Health Department's announcement of the mysterious new version of the virus, which Mr. Hancock did not reveal at the time, said it was perfectly normal for viruses to develop.

They pointed out that the coronavirus has changed thousands of times since it was discovered this year and none of the mutations appear to have changed it.

Professor Hugh Pennington, a bacteriologist from Aberdeen University, wrote in today's Daily Mail: “Some viruses mutate more than others. The Covid virus has fewer mutations, but they still occur.

"If I were rude to our Health Secretary, I would blame him for starting a new 'fear' project yesterday to justify further tightening of restrictions – and to underpin the new 'lockdown' of London, as they did There are three restrictions. & # 39;

Professor Jonathan Ball, a virologist at the University of Nottingham, told Times Radio, “I think many of us were surprised that yesterday was the day of the week to identify and possibly relate this particular variant of the virus to it could have this beneficial dissemination – because at the moment the biological evidence, the data is not there.

"We suspect that some of the changes may have been affecting behavior, but we haven't done the necessary laboratory tests so we shouldn't really be saying that."

When asked if he thought the announcement was politically motivated, Professor Ball added, “It's not my job to draw good conclusions, but I think people can see it was made the same day it was made announced in London and parts of the South East will move to the third stage. & # 39;