Lockdown in England to be widened as cases rise, Hancock says

Lockdown measures in England will be extended to counter the rapidly growing number of cases of a new variant of COVID-19, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC television on Wednesday.

Asked if the current tiered measures would be broadened, Hancock said: “Yes, I’m going to set out the details of that to the House of Commons this afternoon.”

READ: New coronavirus variant does not cause illness more severe than others

Separately earlier today, a matched study by Public Health England found that new variant of the novel coronavirus does not appear to cause more severe illness than other variants.

Scientists say the new variant can spread more rapidly. It was found in England in mid December and led to other countries imposing travel restrictions to the United Kingdom. Several other countries have reported variants.

Under the study, researchers compared 1,769 people infected with the new variant with 1,769 who had what they described as “wild-type” virus. The two groups were matched 1:1 on the basis of age, sex, area of residence and time of testing.