TWO cases of another new strain of Covid-19 linked to South Africa have been identified in the UK, Matt Hancock has said. 

The strain, separate from the one that has infected 18 people so far in Scotland, is said to be even more infectious.

The Health Secretary, speaking at a Downing Street press conference, also announced the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has now submitted full data to the regulator for approval.

Hancock said: “This new variant is highly concerning because it is yet more transmissible and it appears to have mutated further than the new variant that has been discovered in the UK.”

The Tory minister said both cases and close contacts of the cases have been quarantined, there are immediate restrictions on travel from South Africa and the Government is telling those who have been in contact with anyone who has been in South Africa in the last fortnight that they must quarantine.

He added: “These measures are temporary while we investigate further this new strain which is shortly to be analysed at Porton Down.”

Dr Jenny Harries, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said the South African variant is "very different" to the one originally discovered in the UK.

She explained: “Both of them look like they're more transmissible. We have more evidence on the transmission for the UK variant because we've been studying that with great detail with academic partners, we're still learning about the South African variant.”

READ MORE: Jeane Freeman sets possible date for first Scots to get Oxford Covid vaccine

Also speaking at the Westminster press conference, infectious diseases expert Dr Susan Hopkins said: “The new variant in the UK which we’ve identified is very different to the variant in South Africa, it’s got different mutations.

“Both of them look like they are more transmissible. We have more evidence on the transmission for the UK variant because we’ve been studying that with great detail with academic partners.

“We’re still learning about the South African variant and you’ve heard already the measures that we’re introducing to ensure that we quarantine people who are coming in from South Africa.

“Therefore, we are pretty confident actually that this system we have in place will help control the spread.”

She added: “We have no evidence at the moment that the vaccine will not work [on the new strains]. Actually what that means, in fact, is that there’s strong evidence that it will work because the vaccine produces a strong immune response and it’s broad and acts against lots of variation in the virus.

“What we are doing is laboratory studies with people who have had previous infection and who have had vaccine to look and see in the laboratory how their blood kills the virus. Those take a number of weeks as we grow the virus and do those studies. As soon as they are available, we will of course release them.”

On the Oxford vaccine, Hancock said he was "delighted" to announce the developers have submitted their full data package to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for approval.

“This is the next step towards a decision on the deployment of the vaccine which is already being manufactured, including here in the UK," he said.

Despite grave concerns about the highly transmissable nature of the new strains, Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned against an overreaction.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier: “RNA viruses mutate, we know that, they continue to mutate – they have mutated in the past and they will mutate in the future.

“The mutations that have been noticed in the south-eastern part of the UK and in South Africa, there is this concern that it is more readily transmissible.

“There doesn’t seem to be any impact on virulence of the virus and there is no reason to believe that it would evade the polyclonal antibody response that is induced by a vaccine.

“I don’t think that this is something that would require draconian changes in policy so we have to be careful that we don’t overreact to something that is the natural evolution of the virus that might not have any strong impact on how we handle the virus in any way.”