LONDON: UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock claimed that a total of 2,323 cases of the COVID-19 variant first detected in India have been recorded in the United Kingdom

U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government is closely monitoring the highly transmissible coronavirus variant that originated in India while proceeding with plans to allow people to mix indoors and travel overseas starting Monday.

Addressing at the House of Commons, the lower house of British Parliament, Hancock reportedly said the variant is now the dominant strain of the virus in Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen, both in northwest England, with 483 confirmed cases.

According to Hancock, in Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen, cases of the variant have doubled since last week.

"This shows the new variant is not tending to penetrate into older, vaccinated groups and it underlines again the importance of getting the jab especially, but not only amongst the vulnerable age groups." Hancock has said there is a "high degree of confidence" that the current Covid vaccines will be effective against the India-related variant, but the virus could "spread like wildfire" among those who have not had a jab.

"In Blackburn, hospitalizations are stable with eight people currently in hospital with Covid, and in Bolton 19 people are now in hospital with coronavirus, the majority of whom are eligible for a vaccine but haven't yet had a vaccine," he said.

"While we also don't have the complete picture on the impact of the vaccine, the early laboratory data from Oxford University corroborates the evidence from Bolton Hospital and the initial observational data from India that vaccines are effective against this variant," he said.

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