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Going to repeat my personal rule for judging all "new strain" or "new variant" stories... Viruses mutate all the time so it's important to ask whether the behaviour of the virus has changed. We've been given the "scare" but not the "answer".
What @MattHancock said is: "Over the last few days...we have identified a new variant of coronavirus, which may be associated with the faster spread in the South East of England."
He adds: "Initial analysis suggests that this variant is growing faster than the existing variants" and that over 1,000 cases have been detected in 60 areas.
Important phrase is "may be associated" rather than "is causing". Matt Hancock did not say this virus has evolved to spread from person-to-person more readily.
New strains can become more common for reasons that have nothing to do with the virus. One explanation for the emergence of the "Spanish strain" over the summer was tourism.
So at the moment the UK press have the scary headlines, but no scientific detail from @PHE_uk or @uksciencechief to know how significant this is.
