Scientists identify when, where and how they think new Covid strain began in UK
Experts have been able to trace the origins of the new mutant coronavirus strain that originated in England's south east. The first sample was discovered in a person who lived near Canterbury, Kent, in September, according to scientists. The new variant has ripped through the UK ever since - prompting Boris Johnson to cancel Christmas rule relaxation plans and plunge England into a third national lockdown. Countries shut their borders to the UK after the discovery of the new strain prompted fears it would spread further abroad. The strain has since spread overseas, and is believed to be significantly more virulent than the original variant. Its 14 different mutations is thought to make it up to 70 per cent more infectious as well as more transmittable by children. It originally began being detected in the south east and London, where infection rates began ramping up rapidly, before spreading everywhere else in the UK. Experts and vaccine developers have insisted the new strain is unlikely to be resistant to Covid-19 jabs. The UK is in a race against time to vaccinate 14million of the most vulnerable in the population by February 15. Boris Johnson put the country on a war footing on Thursday as he promised the British Army would help speed up the vaccine programme, delivering 'hundreds of thousands' of doses a day. NHS Chief Sir Simon Stevens told the Downing Street press conference speed was essential as patient admissions increased at the rate of a full hospital a day. And earlier in the week, the government's chief science advisor Sir Patrick Vallance warned that it was essential the vaccine march continued apace. Sir Patrick explained the longer the virus was in circulation, the more opportunity it had to mutate further. The World Health Organisation has since confirmed the origins of the variant now being described abroad as the 'UK strain' - revealing the first sample of the new mutant strain was discovered in Kent on September 20. Data from the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium shows a key sample was found in a location "near Canterbury". Kent Live has confirmed this location relates to information provided by public health agencies about where the patient lived rather than the location of a hospital or lab. Experts also believe the new strain may have been created by mutating inside an "immuno-suppressed" person over a long period of time. This means they had a reduced ability to fight off infections and other diseases, normally because of their own condition or illness, such as AIDS or cancer. Dr Jeffrey Barrett, Director of the SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "There’s another case in London from September, so B.1.1.7 (the variant) was present in both places early. "We don’t know exactly how many cases there were in each place in the early days." He added: “There have been a number of reports of individual patients who have prolonged illness, and in whom a similar pat
