The super mutant Omicron Covid variant is circulating within the community, the Health Secretary confirmed today.
Sajid Javid told MPs 'multiple regions of England' were seeing cases of the variant that were not linked to international travel.
And he said he could not guarantee the variant would not 'knock us off our road to recovery', warning 'the window between infection and infectiousness may be shorter for the Omicron'.
The variant, which was first spotted last month by scientists in South Africa — the epicentre of the outbreak — has since spread to 52 countries.
Experts fear the strain will dodge protection from two doses of Covid vaccines and previous infection, due to its extensive mutations.
But scientists are still weeks away from knowing what impact the strain will have on infections, hospitalisations and deaths in the UK, as scientists wait for laboratory and real-world data.
Mr Javid said the virus will be circulating for years to come and may lead to annual booster vaccinations.
Omicron cases in the UK soared to 336 today, but the Health Secretary said none of those infected with the strain have been hospitalised.
Doctors in South Africa have insisted that most patients suffer only mild illness, with the US' top Covid expert Dr Anthony Fauci claiming today it 'doesn't look like there's a great degree of severity to it'.
But experts warn the variant spreading among younger age groups and the lag between catching the virus and becoming seriously unwell could be masking the severity of the new strain.
And British scientists, including the Government's own, warn it could put significant pressure on the NHS by virtue of the fact it can infect more people.
Sajid Javid told MPs 'multiple regions of England' were seeing cases of the variant that were not linked to international travel. And he said he could not guarantee the variant would not 'knock us off our road to recovery', warning the 'the window between infection and infectiousness may be shorter for the Omicron'
A total of 261 Omicron cases have been confirmed in England, while there is 71 in Scotland and four in Wales
In total, there are 46,000 Covid cases on average each day in the UK and data from the Covid Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK) suggests the new strain is already behind around one in 66 of them, or 1.4 per cent
This is the image that has sparked fear among scientists, prompted ministers to turbocharge the UK's booster vaccine rollout and seen the return of mask mandates in England. It details the new super-mutant Omicron variant's spike protein mutations which experts fear will make it the most infectious and vaccine-resistant strain yet. The graphic, released by the country's top variant monitoring team, also lays bare how it is far more evolved than even the world-dominant Delta strain, with nearly five times as many alterations on the spike
