Brazilian variant: British hunt for person infected with the Covid-19 variant first identified in Manaus

Brazilian variant: British hunt for person infected with the Covid-19 variant first identified in Manaus

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The person is one of six cases of the P.1 variant detected in the UK, according to Public Health England (PHE) in a Sunday press release, adding that three of the cases are in England and another three in Scotland.

The unidentified person did not complete a registration card related to their test, and officials could not locate it, PHE said. It requires that anyone who took a test on 12 or 13 February and did not receive their result ‘or has an incomplete test registration card’ contact.

Sky vaccination minister Nadhim Zahawi told Sky News on Monday that the individual was likely to receive a home kit or a test kit from the local authority. ‘

The other two cases identified in England come from one household in the Gloucestershire region with a history of traveling to Brazil, PHE said. The two people “are correctly isolated from themselves” and there is minimal reason to believe that there could be further spread, “Zahawi added.

Contract trackers contact all passengers on Swiss Air flight LX318 from São Paulo via Zurich, which landed in London on 10 February. They will all be tested in their homes, PHE said.

The flight landed days before the UK set up a ten-day hotel system at its own expense. However, it comes almost a month after the UK banned direct flights from Brazil. But British citizens and residents were able to return via indirect routes.
Opposition Labor leader Angela Rayner said the distribution of the P.1 variant was “more evidence that failure to establish a hotel quarantine was reckless and dangerous.” in a post on Twitter.
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“The constant refusal to set up a comprehensive system leaves us exposed to mutations and new variants coming to our country from overseas. The same mistakes over and over again,” she added.

The P.1 variant is suspected to have sparked a revival of viral spread in Brazil. It was found in 42% of the samples in one survey conducted in Manaus and since then, cases have emerged in the US and Japan.

The P.1 variant has mutations in common with the variant identified in South Africa, which may mean that it is more contagious and can help evade vaccines. “It is possible that this variant may respond less well to current vaccines, but more work is needed to understand this,” PHE said Sunday.

“Recent reports from Manaus in Brazil, where the P.1 variant stimulates an increase in infections, indicate that this variant is responsible for the infection of individuals previously infected with another variant of the virus,” Lawrence said. Young, a professor of molecular oncology at Warwick Medical School, said in a release sent by the UK’s Science Media Center.

“Therefore, it is even more important to do everything possible to prevent the spread of this virus and all other variants, including strict border control and an effective testing, detection and isolation system,” he said.

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