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Health Secretary Matt Hancock starts by telling MPs that the benefits of a vaccine, which is being rolled out further this week, will take time to show and “we must persevere”.
He says there has been a sharp rise of cases in south Wales, London and parts of the East and south-east of England.
Hancock tells MPs that a new variant of the virus has been identified which may be "growing faster" than existing variants, and they have identified more than 1,000 cases - predominantly in the south of England.
He says the numbers of cases with this variant have been increasing rapidly and the World Health Organization has been notified.
He adds that it is unlikely to cause more serious disease than other variants.