The UK government said on Tuesday it will offer its genomics expertise to identify new variants of the CCP virus to countries that do not have the resources to do so. “I’m delighted to announce our New Variant Assessment Platform—using the UK’s massive genomic testing capacity to help countries around the world identify new variants,” Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Twitter. “We must protect people and detect new variants wherever they arise,” he wrote. The New Variant Assessment Platform, led by Public Health England (PHE), will offer Britain’s capacity to analyse new virus strains to other countries who are in need of such expertise. The UK has carried out more than half of all SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences submitted to the global database, the Department of Health and Social Care said. It was this capability that enabled scientists from Public Health England (PHE) to identify the new variant in …