‘If you have food in the house, please use that’: Hancock warns people in South African Covid areas

People in areas hit by outbreaks of the new South African variant of coronavirus should eat out of their freezer and store cupboards before considering leaving the house to shop for fresh food, Matt Hancock said today.

The Heath Secretary repeated warnings that the highly transmissible strain was the main problem now facing Britain and required people to take a more strict attitude to staying at home.

New Data from Oxford University showing its vaccine cuts transmission ‘will help us all to get out of this pandemic’, he said this morning as hopes were raised over the lifting of lockdown.

But he also warned that new variants of coronavirus – which reduce the effectiveness of vaccines – could slow things down.

Another 33 cases of the troublesome South African Covid variant have been spotted in Britain, health chiefs revealed last night amid growing fears over mutant strains that experts say could make vaccines less effective.

Public Health England claimed 143 people have now been struck down with the variant since it was first discovered on British soil in December – including five in Scotland and nine in Wales. None have been found in Northern Ireland.

The senior Government minister told BBC Breakfast: ‘We’re in a national lockdown so there is not a stronger law we can bring in place that says ”Really stay at home” but the critical point is that everybody should be staying at home unless they have to.

‘If you are in one of those postcodes, it is absolutely imperative that you minimise all social contact outside of your house.

‘So this means, for instance, whereas the Government guidance to most of us is ”Do go to the shops if you need to”, in those areas, in the immediate term, we are saying ”If you have food in the house, please use that”. 

‘It is about a more stringent interpretation of the existing rules, trying to make sure that in those areas we do everything we possibly can to end all transmissions so we can get this new variant right under control.

‘There are only a handful of cases, so we have the opportunity to really stamp on it now.’ 

In yet another potential twist to the UK’s coronavirus crisis, officials today also announced they have found 11 cases of the Kent coronavirus variant which carries an extra mutation in Bristol.

And 32 people in Liverpool have been struck down with the original strain of the virus that has the same mutation – scientifically known as E484K. MailOnline understands the cases were spotted three weeks ago.

Around one in seven people in England would have tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies by mid-January, figures suggest.

Data from blood studies from private households suggests a rise in the number who have had coronavirus in England – up from an estimated one in nine people in December and one in 11 in November.

The figures come from the Office for National Statistics Covid-19 Infection Survey and do not include people in care homes, hospitals or other institutions.

An estimated one in nine people in Wales had been infected by mid-January, up from one in 14 in December.

For Scotland, the estimate was one in 10, up from one in 13, and for Northern Ireland it was one in 11, up from one in 14.

The ONS said it had found ‘substantial variation’ in the proportion of people estimated to have tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies across the regions.

The highest figure was 21 per cent in London, followed by the West Midlands (18.8 per cent) and Yorkshire & the Humber (18.7 per cent).

South-west England was estimated to have the lowest level (8.3 per cent), followed by south-east England (10.2 per cent) and eastern England (10.8 per cent).

Estimates for the other regions were north-west England 18.1 per cent, north-east England 16.2 per cent and the East Midlands 15.7 per cent.