British health officials are racing to track down a person who has been infected with a Covid-19 variant first identified in the Brazilian city of Manaus.
The person is one of six cases of the P.1 variant that have been detected in the UK, according to Public Health England (PHE) in a Sunday press release, which added that three of the cases were located in England and another three in Scotland.
The unidentified individual did not complete a registration card associated with their test so officials are not able to track them, PHE said. It is asking for anyone who took a test on February 12 or 13 and has not received their result “or has an uncompleted test registration card” to get in contact.
Speaking to Sky News on Monday, the UK’s vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi believes the individual “would probably got a home kit or a test kit from the local authority.”
The two other cases identified in England are from one household in the Gloucestershire region with a history of travel to Brazil, PHE said. The two people “have been self-isolating correctly” and there is “minimal reason to believe that there may be further spread,” Zahawi added.
Contract tracers are getting in touch with all passengers on Swiss Air flight LX318 from São Paulo via Zurich, which landed in London on February 10. They will all be tested in their homes, PHE said.
The flight landed days before the UK imposed a 10-day quarantine hotel system at their own expense. It however arrived nearly a month after the UK banned direct flights from Brazil. But UK nationals and residents have been able to return via indirect routes.
The deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, Angela Rayner, said the P.1 variant’s spread was “more evidence that the failure to introduce a hotel quarantine was reckless and dangerous,” in a post on Twitter.
“The continuing refusal to put in place a comprehensive system leaves us exposed to mutations and new variants coming into our country from overseas. The same mistakes again and again,” she added.
The P.1 variant is suspected of fueling a resurgence of viral spread in Brazil. It was found in 42% of specimens in one survey carried out in Manaus and cases have since emerged in the US and Japan.
The P.1 variant has mutations in common with the variant identified in South Africa, which could mean that it is more contagious and may help it 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 on Sunday.
“Recent reports from Manaus in Brazil, where the P.1 variant is fueling a surge in infections, suggest that this variant is responsible for re-infecting individuals who were previously infected with a different variant of the virus,” Lawrence Young, a professor of molecular oncology at Warwick Medical School, said in a release sent out by the UK’s Science Media Center.
“That’s why it’s even more important to do everything to stop the spread of this virus and all other variants including strict border controls and an efficient test, trace and isolate system,” he said.
