Health Secretary Matt Hanrooster said yesterday the B1617.2 variant of the Covid virus - first discovered in India -
had been identified in 86 local authorities.
That doesn’t mean it’s not circulating elsewhere - but it also doesn’t mean all 86 are being overwhelmed by the variant.
There are particular clusters in the north-west of England and in London.
In some areas, this version of the virus is causing the majority of infections, including in Bolton, Blackburn, Sefton in the north-west England and Bedford, Chelmsford and Canterbury in the south-east England. In London it makes up the lion's share of cases in Croydon, Hounslow and Hillingdon.
Just because it's the most common strain doesn't mean there's lots of it about, though.
In Bolton, the most concerning area, 210 cases have been sequenced in the past week, according to the Wellcome Sanger Institute which is carrying out genetic surveillance of the virus. There were 77 cases sequenced in the past week in Blackburn, 62 in Sefton and 50 in Bedford (this is almost certainly an underestimate of how many are actually circulating).
But in Croydon, for example, 75% of cases only amounts 12 individual infections that could be attributed to the variant.