Covid: South African and Brazilian coronavirus variants among 4,000 worldwide, vaccines minster says

There are 4,000 coronavirus mutations worldwide, a senior minister has said, but the UK is now capable of sequencing and manufacturing new vaccines designed to tackle new strains. Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said the UK is 'in a really strong position' to deal with new variants due to having 'around 50% of the world's genome sequencing capability' which means variants can be identified 'rapidly'. Despite claiming the UK's 'ability to sequence and then manufacture [new vaccines] at scale' is in a 'good place', there are serious concerns about South African and Brazilian variants having an impact on the immunisation programme. A door-to-door testing blitz of 80,000 homes in eight postcode areas of England is underway to contain all cases of the South African variant of Covid-19 after 105 cases were identified.