The world will likely not know the full impact of the new mutant Covid strain for several weeks, experts have warned.

Professor Peter Horby, chairman of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said today scientists were still exploring the new strain which is thought to spread 70% faster.

Experts are looking into if the vaccine will still work and if recovered patients will have some degree of immunity caused by prior infection, as reports claim most of England will be under tier four restrictions soon.

There is no evidence the strain affects vaccines and treatments, although urgent work is underway to confirm this, England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty told the nation on Saturday.

Speaking during an evidence session of the Commons Science and Technology Committee on Wednesday, Nervtag member Professor Neil Ferguson said: ‘There is an enormous amount of work underway.

‘This is very early and it will take some weeks before we properly understand the characteristics of this virus, both in terms of the details of transmission but also in terms of clinical outcomes.’

Professor Horby added that scientists believe the new strain started from one person in Kent, and could have been caused by ‘random errors’ when the virus copies.

He said: ‘What we don’t know yet is if there’s any difference in the severity of disease, the age distribution of cases, or most importantly whether there is any immune escape.’

Asked if a lax attitude towards lockdown measures could have caused the mutant strain to spread, Nervtag member Professor Neil Ferguson said corroboration of other data suggested otherwise.

He said: ‘There was nothing special about what was going on in Kent and the south of England during lockdown compared with other areas of the country.

‘We saw the non-variant decline in a particular week and place, whilst the variant increased in the same week and place in the same population.’

Professor Peter Horby also denied suggestions that Boris Johnson overstated transmission rates of the mutant strain in order to cancel longstanding Government plans for Christmas .

He said: ‘I don’t think there’s been any “egging up”, as far as I can tell. This is a new variant which is of concern.’

This is a breaking story – more follows.

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