Matt Hancock has told people living in mutant variant coronavirus areas not to go to the shops if they already have food in the house.
It has been reported this week that Public Health England (PHE) is investigating new strains of Covid in the UK which have developed a mutation that has been worrying scientists.
The Health Secretary gave a statement on the mutations yesterday.
Today he appeared on BBC Breakfast as he warned people to minimise all social contact outside of the house in affected areas, including Southport where the South African variant has been found.
He said: “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.
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“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.”
Both South African and Brazilian variants contain a mutation to the spike protein known as E484K - which may help the virus evade parts of the immune system called antibodies.
Eleven cases in the Bristol area have been identified as the variant that originally arose in Kent but are now showing the E484K mutation.
105 cases of the South African variant have been reported since it was identified on December 22 last year, 11 of which have not occurred through international travel.
Mr Hancock added: “All numbers of cases of this variant we have found in the community and in those postcode areas we have set out it is imperative that people stay at home and stop the spread of this virus.
“That’s because whilst we don’t yet fully know the impact of the vaccines on this variant we want to take a highly precautionary approach and I think people understand that.
“The good news is there is new evidence out last night that the Oxford vaccine works and works well and is effective both at stopping hospitalisations and crucially reducing transmission very significantly by around two thirds.
