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Data from the REACT study - which measures the spread of the virus in England - found the AY.4.2 subvariant made up 12 per cent of positive samples between October 19 and November 5.
A report by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) showed jabs are around 81 per cent effective at stopping people infected with AY.4.2. Two doses are around 83 per cent effective against Delta.
Both Alpha and Delta sparked explosions in cases when they emerged in the UK. SAGE scientists said there was 'no reason' to assume that this would not happen again.
World Health Organization is taking special notice of new UK Covid variant AY.4.2. The body wants to learn if the new strain is more dangerous than its ancestor. The UK has 93% of world's AY.4.2 cases.
One of the Government's largest Covid surveillance programmes spotted AY.4.2 in 303 of 315 local authorities in the fortnight to October 16. In the previous week it was not in two dozen areas.