UK discovers two COVID-19 strains linked to South Africa

The United Kingdom has revealed that it has discovered two cases of another new variant of COVID-19 linked to travellers from South Africa, the health secretary Matt Hancock says.

The health secretary also announced restrictions on passengers travelling from South Africa while also announcing further that swaths of England would be placed under its strictest COVID-19 restrictions.

At the Downing Street press briefing on Wednesday, Mr Hancock said the new variant was “highly concerning” and that anyone told to quarantine must avoid “all contact with any other person whatsoever”

Hancock said; “Anyone who has travelled there in the past fortnight, and anyone they have been in contact with, are being told to quarantine immediately.

Reports say the COVID variant has been causing mounting concern in South Africa, where health minister Zweli Mkhize warned that “young, previously healthy people are now becoming very sick”.

He said the country “cannot go through what we went through in the early days of the Aids pandemic”.