Mutant coronavirus strain has already spread 300 miles north of London

The Government’s top scientific advisor warned that large swathes of the country were heading for tougher Tier 4 restrictions.

Travel chaos was expected for a second day as the French lorry blockade continued and more than 50 countries cancelled flights to the UK amid fears over the new strain.

It follows Boris Johnson bringing in a new Tier 4 lockdown across the South East and limiting Christmas to one day elsewhere as cases soared to the highest levels yet.

Sir Patrick Vallance told a No 10 briefing that the new variant, which is highly infectious but not considered to be more dangerous, was already spreading.

It originated in the South East of England but has been found in every part of the country, apart from Northern Ireland.

Regional health chiefs urged visitors from Tier 4 areas and Wales to assume they had the new strain and self-isolate.

Boris Johnson is facing questions over whether his Tiers system is doing enough to do curb the spread of the disease after it soared in a week.

There were 33,364 new coronavirus cases on Monday, while a further 215 people died.

In London, the infection rate has risen from 243 cases per 100,000 people on 9 December to 528 on 16 December.

Sir Patrick warned that the new variant - known as VUI- 202012/01 - had already spread all around the country.

“It’s localised in some places but we know there are cases everywhere, so it’s not as though we can stop this getting into other places, there’s some there already.

“The message has been very clear and, I think I want to reinforce it, is ‘stay local’.”

In response to a question from the Daily Mirror, the top scientist suggested restrictions could be further tightened across the country in the coming weeks.

“The evidence on this virus is that it spreads easily, it’s more transmissible, we absolutely need to make sure we have the right level of restrictions in place,” he said.

“I think it is likely that this will grow in numbers of the variant across the country and I think it’s likely, therefore, that measures will need to be increased in some places, in due course, not reduced.

“I think it is the case that this will spread more.”

He predicted there would be a dramatic spike in cases after an “inevitable period of mixing” over Christmas.

Yet the Prime Minister, challenged over his record of over-promising during the pandemic, struck an upbeat note.

He claimed: “We can certainly look forward to a very, very different world from Easter onwards”.

More than 500,000 people have now received the first dose of a vaccine in the UK.

Public health chiefs are investigating a hotspot in Cumbria in the North West while the variant is also thought to be behind a surge of cases in Wales.

In the West Midlands, Lancashire and Greater Manchester they urged anybody who travelled to regions from London, the South East or Wales to self-isolate.

In Liverpool City Region new arrivals were advised to get a coronavirus test.

Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy, a director of Public Health in Greater Manchester, said: “The new strain of Covid is extremely worrying.

“It is incredibly infectious and if you come in to contact with someone with this strain you are far more likely to catch it than the original strain.”

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “The Government is telling the public that the second Covid strain - which is more infectious - is already in every part of the country and further restrictions will be needed.

“So why has Boris Johnson not acted? We already know the Tier system does not control infections.”

And Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey added: “People will have watched the PM’s press conference and be wondering whether in a few days’ time he will be forced to announce a national lockdown and admit Dover has descended into chaos.”

Virus expert Prof Neil Ferguson, a member of Government advisory group NervTag, said: “There’s evidence of a hotspot now in the North West of England for this virus.

“We have yet to fully determine what’s going on in South Wales because there is a hint this variant may partly be responsible for the surge in cases there.

“So it’s to do partly with random chance and where people travel, and where you get clusters established as well.”

Public Health England confirmed they are looking at a new outbreak of the mutant coronavirus in Cumbria.

Dr Susan Hopkins said: “It’s a very small number of cases and they sequence very small amounts, so there’s not very much reliable around that estimate, but we have been speaking to the local team and asking them to investigate further.”

Prof James Naismith, of Oxford University, added: “Whatever happens January and possibly February will be difficult months, with death tolls once again exceeding 500 per day on some days. This is a very serious moment.”

The Office for National Statistics’ coronavirus infection survey shows the new strain of Covid-19 was present in 28% of samples from Wales in the second week of December.

Professor Chris Jones told a Welsh Government press conference that this figure was “more than double the number in the previous week”.

The Prime Minister held crisis talks with French President Emmanuel Macron over France’s ban on lorries carrying freight from the UK.

There were chaotic scenes at Dover with at least 170 lorries, and potentially hundreds more, queuing along the motorway in Kent, one of the country’s worst virus hotspots.

France later said it would bring in new sanitary checks but the chaos was set to continue until Christmas - and potentially beyond in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

But there were fears the travel disruption could threaten supplies of fresh goods in the run-up to Christmas Day.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps claimed that “for the most part” supplies would get through and there would only be problems if the blockade continued.

The Government was last night understood to be considering a deal with France to unlock the border using mass testing as talks continued.

But there was concern among officials that the system could take too long to set up.

The markets tumbled in response to the crisis and the looming prospect of a no-deal Brexit at the end of December.

More than £33 billion was wiped off the FTSE 100 within minutes of opening, although it later rallied.

Flights from more than 50 countries around the world were cancelled amid fears over the new mutant coronavirus strain.

More countries have banned arrivals from the UK with Hong Kong joining Switzerland, Germany, and Italy in suspending flights.

The travel disruption will leave passengers stranded in the run-up to Christmas.

Alarmingly, experts at Cambridge University forecast that daily Covid deaths could reach almost 900 by New Year’s Day.

Its MCR Biostatistics Unit estimates that there are now 91,000 new infections a day in England, many of them asymptomatic.

A third of major hospital trusts in England currently have more Covid-19 patients than at the peak of the first wave of the virus,

Other trusts have seen their numbers rise so rapidly that they could pass their first-wave peak within days.

Mirror