A new coronavirus strain that is believed to have originated in the UK is being tracked by scientists, as efforts increase to suppress variants of concern.

Public Health England revealed there have been 16 cases of the new UK variant, referred to as VUI-202102/04, which were identified through genomic horizon scanning on February 15.

The variant was designated a “variant under investigation” (VUI) by PHE nine days later.

All people who have tested positive for the variant, and their contacts, have been traced and advised to isolate.

New Covid-19 variants regularly emerge and experts conduct frequent analysis to determine which are of concern or not.

The new findings mean scientists are now monitoring four VUIs and four “variants of concern” (VOC) in the UK.

PHE said the latest identified variant, also known as B.1.1.318, contains the E484K mutation, found in two other VUIs in the UK, but it does not feature the N501Y mutation that is present in all VOCs.

Health minister Lord Bethell said on Thursday that Britain was the most likely place in the world where a mutant variation of coronavirus will occur as it will happen in an area where there is “a high infection rate and a large amount of suppression of the virus by either a lockdown or a vaccine programme”.

Speaking in the Lords, he said the country “must be on the balls of its feet” to be ready for such “unhelpful news”.

Meanwhile, broadcaster and leading fertility expert Lord Winston warned the risk of a dangerous new variant against which there was no defence was “eventually likely to be inevitable”.

The comments came as the Government announced a ramp up of surge testing for the South African variant in North Wembley, Brent, after at least one person tested positive for the variant.

It follows last week’s announcement that surge testing would be deployed in Ealing and Redbridge in London to help control the same variant.

Surge testing began in south Gloucestershire on Monday where cases of the Manaus variant of coronavirus were discovered.

Six cases of this VOC, known as P1 and first detected in the Brazilian city of Manaus, have been found in the UK – three in Scotland and three in England.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday that the search for a missing person infected with the variant had been narrowed down to 379 households in the south east of England.

Meanwhile, the Government said that a further 242 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Thursday, bringing the UK total to 124,025.

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have been 145,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.

As of 9am on Thursday, there had been a further 6,573 lab-confirmed cases in the UK which brought the total to 4,201,358.