New Delhi, India

South Korea detected its first case of the variant of coronavirus which was first found in Britain. Now, the government has stepped up efforts to contain further spread of the new variant, with officials vowing to speed up efforts to initiate a vaccination programme.

The new variant of coronavirus is thought to be more transmissible than the original strain, and was spotted in three people who had come to South Korea from London on December 22, as per information given out by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) on Monday.

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On Sunday, the country reported 808 new cases of COVID-19, its lowest tally since 1,241 new infections were recorded on Friday. South Korea intends to buy enough doses to vaccinate 46 million people, or more than 85 per cent of its population.

Also read: Canada confirms two cases of coronavirus variant first seen in UK

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Scientists say the variant is about 40%-70% more transmissible than the original strain. Several other countries, including Australia, Italy and the Netherlands say they detected cases of the new strain.

Scientists say there is no evidence that vaccines currently being deployed - including one made by Pfizer and BioNtech - or other COVID-19 shots in development will not protect against this variant.

Also read: After UK, South Africa, another coronavirus variant emerges in Nigeria

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British Health Secretary Matt Hancock was the first one to announce the identification of a new variant of coronavirus on December 20. Now, as his government has announced a Tier 4 lockdown in the country, Hancock has justified the move by revealing the extent of danger the new variant poses.

Talking about the new and stricter lockdown in south-eastern England during the Christmas time, Hancock said the decision was needed to control the worsening situation as the new variant was "out of control".

Authorities cautioned that the drop may be due to less testing done over the weekend and the Christmas holiday, and said on Sunday they would be extending social distancing measures until early January.