Covid news: Indian variant may account for 75% of new cases, as new strain from Thailand found in UK

Matt Hancock has revealed more than half – and potentially up to three quarters – of all new coronavirus cases are now of the Indian variant.

At a Downing Street press conference the health secretary also denied promising Boris Johnson all hospital patients would be tested for Covid-19 before being discharged into care homes as he faced the media a day after Dominic Cummings made a string of allegations against him.

Mr Hancock has denied claims he lied repeatedly to officials and the public throughout the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Public Health England has identified a new strain of Covid-19 it designated a “variant under investigation”. The C.36.3 strain was first detected in Thailand, in people who had travelled from Egypt.

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