Every hos­pi­tal in the coun­try has been ordered to iso­late sus­pect­ed “mink virus” patients amid increas­ing efforts to pre­vent a mutant strain of Covid from spread­ing to Britain. Jonathan Van Tam, the deputy chief med­ical offi­cer, has told doc­tors, nurs­es and GPs to take “imme­di­ate action” against a new strain of the virus feared to be resis­tant to vac­cines. In a let­ter cir­cu­lat­ed to health chiefs, co-signed by the NHS med­ical direc­tor, Pro­fes­sor Steve Powis, hos­pi­tals have been told that any coro­n­avirus patients who recent­ly trav­elled to Den­mark must be iso­lat­ed, treat­ed in spe­cial­ist cen­tres and gene test­ed for the new strain. The mea­sures are sim­i­lar to those tak­en in ear­ly March, when the Gov­ern­ment tried to pre­vent Covid from spread­ing into the UK from Chi­na and main­land Europe. Mean­while, vets in Den­mark began the grim task of gassing and burn­ing 17 mil­lion mink in a bid to halt fur­ther spread of the “clus­ter five” muta­tion, so far detect­ed in 12 peo­ple after jump­ing from the ani­mals to humans.