As it happened: Urgent England tests as S Africa variant found - BBC News
Authorities will work hard to combat the new variant with a surge in testing, the health secretary says on 1 February.
Is the South African variant more likely to cause serious illness?

Finally the scientists are asked about the South African variant and whether it is more likely to cause serious illness. Dr Hopkins says it has "similar transmissibility" to the variant that was first found in Kent but there is not evidence it is causing more severe disease than other variants circulating in the UK. However, she adds that it has slightly more mutations in the spike protein which is perhaps causing vaccines to have "diminished effectiveness" although they still work very well. She says the government wants to prevent viruses with mutations acquiring more mutations which is why breaking the chains of transmission for the South African variant is essential. Hancock adds that the UK's flu vaccination programme is upgraded every year to make sure it is as effective as possible against new variants. He says he hopes the government will be able to get the coronavirus jab to the same place and it will become "something people have as standard".