Further restrictions are likely to be introduced in England to control the new variant of Covid-19, the UK's chief scientific adviser has said. Sir Patrick Vallance said measures could "need to be increased in some places, in due course, not reduced". London and large swathes of south-east England were placed in the highest tier four restrictions over the weekend.
Sir Patrick also predicted there would be spike in cases after an "inevitable period of mixing" over Christmas. It comes as more than 40 countries including France, Spain, India and Hong Kong have banned UK flights because of concerns about the spread of the variant.
Speaking at a Downing Street briefing, he said he believed the variant would help cases "spread more". Asked why tougher measures were not in place across the country following the introduction of the tier 4 level, Sir Patrick added: "The evidence on this virus is that it spreads easily. It's more transmissible. We absolutely need to make sure we have the right level of restrictions in place." But he said there was no reason to think the new variant is more dangerous than the existing strain.
"The transmission is increased. We can't say exactly by how much, but it is clearly substantially increased, so it is more transmissible. Which is why we see it growing so fast and spreading to so many areas."
The government scrapped plans to relax rules at Christmas in those areas subject to tier 4 rules. Some 17 million people in England and Wales affected are being told to stay at home, while non-essential shops and businesses have to close. But in other regions of England - in tiers 1 to 3 - Christmas mixing is being allowed on 25 December.
Sir Patrick said the variant of the virus had to be taken "incredibly seriously". He said: "It's really important to follow the rules carefully and make an assumption that you could be infectious.
"You could be the person spreading it to somebody else, and [you should] behave accordingly." He added: "The doubling time of this infection with a new variant is quite fast, it is more transmissible, it does require more action in order to keep it down and that's why tier 4 is important."
