Coronavirus: Tighter restrictions expected as mutant strain spreads round UK, says chief scientist

Britain must be braced for further tightening of coronavirus restrictions as a virulent new strain of the illness spreads, Boris Johnson’s chief scientific adviser has warned.

Speaking as health chiefs in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands told people arriving from tier 4 areas like London and Wales to self-isolate, Sir Patrick Vallance said it was no longer possible to stop the new variant from spreading around the UK to places with less stringent controls.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson revealed that more than 500,000 people have now received the vaccine against Covid-19, which is believed also to be effective against the new strain.

The prime minister batted away suggestions that deployment of the vaccine could be concentrated on the areas which he placed into tier 4 restrictions on Saturday, insisting that the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations continue to recommend it should be given to health and care workers, the elderly and those with health conditions first.

The new variant Covid-19 first detected in Kent last week is believed to be up to 70 per cent more infective than the original virus which arrived in the UK in the spring.

Asked if its rapid spread might mean more parts of the UK being placed in tier 4, with the closure of non-essential shops and a “stay at home” order for residents, Sir Patrick said: “The evidence of this virus is it spreads easily, it’s more transmissible. We absolutely need to make sure we’ve got the right level of restrictions in place.

“I think it is likely that this will grow in numbers of the variant across the country. And I think it’s likely therefore that measures will need to be increased in some places in due course, not reduced.”

On Monday afternoon, public health directors in the West Midlands and Greater Manchester asked people to self isolate for 10 days if they had travelled from London and areas of the South East, which entered tier 4 at the weekend, or Wales, where tough new measures came into force on Sunday.

In Liverpool City Region, where a mass coronavirus testing pilot has been taking place, anyone who had travelled from London or the South East was urged to get a coronavirus test.

The advice came after scenes of people packing railway stations in London hours before tier 4 controls came into force at midnight on Sunday, prompting fears the more infectious new variant could be spread across the country by the travellers.

Director of public health for Tameside, Greater Manchester, Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy said: “We are so concerned about the potential grave impact of this that we have taken the difficult decision to ask anyone who has travelled here for Christmas from any tier 4 area or Wales to act as if they have this new variant, even if they have no symptoms, and self-isolate for at least 10 days.

“Other people in the house do not need to self isolate but no visitors should be allowed in that house at all, even on Christmas Day.”

But Sir Patrick said it was too late to stop the spread of the virus to areas in tiers 1 to 3.

He told the Downing Street press conference: “Local directors of public health have clearly got a role to make sure their local population is looked after.  They need to make the decisions that they need to make in order to do that.”

But he added: “The new variant is spread around the country. It’s localised in some places but we know there are cases everywhere, so it’s not as though we can stop this getting into other places, there’s some there already.”

Sir Patrick said: “The message has been very clear and, I think I want to reinforce it, is stay local. People shouldn’t be travelling around the country at the moment. Stay local.”