Photo: Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock, speaks at a press conference inside 10 Downing Street on further restrictions to be put in place due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in London, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020. /AFP

LONDON, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- British Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Wednesday confirmed that two cases of new, "more transmissible" COVID-19 variant linked to South Africa have been identified in Britain.

More areas in the East, South East and parts of South West of England will be placed in Tier Four from Boxing Day, the health secretary said at a virtual press conference at Downing Street.

The press conference was held after British ministers met on Wednesday morning to hammer out plans to combat a rising number of infections in the country.

To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States are racing against time to develop coronavirus vaccines.