New Covid variant may pose ‘substantial risk’ to public health, says Sajid Javid

Health secretary Sajid Javid says the new variant of Covid is “of huge international concern” and that vaccines “may be less effective against it”.

Mr Javid told MPs the “Nu” variant could be even more transmissible than Delta and that it could pose a “substantial risk to public health”.

Mr Javid confirmed that no cases of the variant - detected in South Africa and Botswana -have yet been detected in the UK.

The health secretary’s warning comes after officials sounded the alarm on Thursday night over the B.1.1.529 variant.

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