COVID-19: India added to coronavirus travel 'red list' over new variant concerns
Health Secretary
COVID variant first identified in
India, which has been deemed a "variant under investigation".
The so-called India variant is
known as a double mutant as it has two new significant mutations in the spike protein of the virus that help it infect cells and evade the immune system.
According to figures from the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK), which tracks COVID variants, 182 cases of the India variant have so far been found in the UK up to 16 April.
Of those, 162 cases have been found in the last five weeks.