England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty warned on Monday there will be new COVID-19 variants and said some of them could be more resistant to vaccines.

Earlier, Britain said it would end all coronavirus restrictions in England including mandatory self-isolation for people with COVID-19 and free testing, drawing skepticism from some scientists and political opponents.

"We all expect... there to be new variants. And some of those new variants will just disappear," Whitty told a press conference. "But some of them will cause significant problems."