Good Morning Britain‘s Dr Sarah Jarvis explained what the new strain of Covid-19 seen in the South East means for the rest of the nation.

Her words came as millions in the area were placed into Tier 4 on Saturday as Boris Johnson backtracked on his relaxation of lockdown over Christmas.

The new strain, prevalent in London and the South East, is not thought to be more deadly and research does not yet indicate the vaccine won’t work on it – but it does spread faster.

But Dr Sarah said it is more important than ever to keep a lid on the virus as much as possible as the NHS is under so much pressure, delaying patients their treatment for non-Covid related conditions.

“This is a new strain of the virus, we are talking about an increase in the R number, between 0.4 and 0.9, that’s a huge increase in the degree of spread,” she explained.

“We have seen cases in the areas worst affected doubling almost every seven days, despite having tier restrictions.

“So this really is spreading fast, but there is no evidence that this strains causes more serious illness, although it does cause just as serious illness if you’re vulnerable or elderly.”

She continued: “It’s not just people, of course, who have got Covid.

“What we see is that hospitals in Kent, University College London, Whipps Cross, Leicester, hospitals across the South East of England and spreading out from that small patch where it started, are declaring critical incidents, they are banning non-urgent services.

“In Wales, they have also banned non-urgent operations, and I really fear we will see what we saw in the first lockdown, which was all those people on waiting lists for non-Covid conditions waiting longer.

“One hundred and twenty three times more people now waiting more than a year for a non-Covid-related condition than this time last year.

“And unfortunately 2.3 million people waiting more than 18 months, that’s before this starts.

* Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV at 6am