THE Health Secretary has warned that the Indian variant is becoming the dominant strain of Covid-19 in Bolton and he has not ruled out the use of a local lockdown in the town.

Matt Hancock said that there are now more than 1,300 cases of the so-called Indian variant in total and it is becoming “the dominant strain” in areas of the North West including Bolton and Blackburn.

Speaking today (May 16), the Cabinet minister said that it is “appropriate” to push on with the major easing of lockdown in England on Monday despite warnings from scientists and medics.

He did not rule out the possibility that Monday’s easing may have to be reversed if the strain turns out to be very highly transmissible, but said the hope is the “cautious and irreversible approach” can continue.

The Cabinet minister replied “we do not rule that out” when asked about the prospect of specific areas having heightened restrictions compared to tackle variants.

Speaking on Sky news, he said: “The approach we’re taking in Bolton and Blackburn is to absolutely pile in testing and vaccinations to try to get on top of this.”

“So at the moment we’re taking the approach that worked in south London – which is this massive surge testing – but of course we don’t rule out further action.

“Given though Bolton has been in some form of kind of a lockdown for a year, it’s not a step we want to take but of course we might have to take it and we will if it’s necessary to protect people.”

But he warned the highly transmissible variant could “spread like wildfire among the unvaccinated groups” as he urged people to come forward for jabs when eligible.

Mr Hancock also said today (May 16) that there is “new very early data” from Oxford University giving confidence that existing vaccines work against the variant.

“That means that we can stay on course with our strategy of using the vaccine to deal with the pandemic and opening up carefully and cautiously but we do need to be really very vigilant to the spread of the disease,” he continued.

“We have a high degree of confidence that the vaccine will overcome.”

Mr Hancock said the Government will decide on June 14 whether all legal restrictions can be ended in the final step of the road map out of lockdown on June 21.