The UK will come down hard on the South African variant of the CCP virus, Britain’s Health Secretary said on Monday, as the government ramped up its effort to contain the variant’s spread in the country. The UK has now identified 105 cases of this variant, 11 of which do not appear to have any links to international travel, Matt Hancock said during a press conference held in Downing Street. Those cases are the first in the UK of community transmission of the variant, which is more transmissible and is thought to be more resistant to some vaccines. “There’s currently no evidence to suggest this variant is any more severe, but we need to come down on it hard, and we will,” Hancock said. “We’ve already made sure that all these cases are isolating and that we’ve done enhanced contact tracing of all of their close contacts. We are surging …