I know, and my first reaction was 'we're all doomed' (likely most others too?), before I read and listened to some other things about it and realised, at this stage, it's potentially of no cause for concern at all.
Equally, it could be said that a new variant has been been identified and it...
For the government to 'officially announce' this in this manner does raise an eyebrow or two.
At first I thought FFS, this is bad news, but then with all the caveats and uncertainties, I realised its a pointless thing to say at this stage.