A HIGHLY contagious coronavirus variant which originated in south east England is now "widespread" in Wales, and three new variants are also being closely monitored, first minister Mark Drakeford said today.

This comes as six cases of the new South African variant have been identified in Wales.

And speaking as a Welsh Government press conference, the first minister said the emergence of these variants in Wales were "cause for concern."

 

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"We know that the highly contagious strain sometimes called the Kent variant is now widespread across Wales and we are closely monitoring three other new variants - one from South Africa and two from Brazil," he said. "All of these are cause for concern.

 

"We already have six cases of the South African variant identified here in Wales.

"We are not immune at all to changes which can happen in other parts of the world, and this is why we all have to go on taking that cautious and careful approach living with the restrictions that we have and that are making that difference."

Mr Drakeford was asked by the South Wales Argus whether testing facilities in Wales were able to present an accurate picture of how widespread the new variants were.

"The good news is that we probably do have a good idea," said the first minister. "I'm afraid that we think that in North Wales 80 per cent of new cases are likely to be the new variant that was first discovered in the South East of England, and then in South Wales that's likely to be 50 per cent and rising.

"We know that primarily through the lighthouse labs and we had an earlier insight into the North Wales position because more tests from North Wales go to a lighthouse laboratory that's able to detect the new variant.

"The Public Health [Wales] labs are working to be in a position to distinguish the new variant. They're already able to do some of that work and all genomic sequencing that we do in Wales - which is a very significant, world-leading set of arrangements - is also able to identify it.

"But from what we know from lighthouse labs, by now we have a much more settled understanding of the way the new variant is spreading and it is happening in Wales as it happens elsewhere - it is a more aggressive form of the virus, it crowds out to the original variant and becomes the dominant variant. That’s already happened in North Wales and it is happening in South Wales as well."