She added three regions, namely Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands, Northeast and East of England, have seen a marked increase of roughly three percent.
The variant’s current concentration won’t make a discernible impact on UK cases just yet.
Professor Pagel said many uncertainties remained around the variant, but it is time to “start planning”.
Writing on Twitter, she said: “There is lots we don’t know about AY.3.”