Variant of Brazil: the United Kingdom is looking for people infected with the Covid-19 variant first identified in Manaus

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

The unidentified person did not complete a registration card associated with the test, so officials are unable to track them, PHE said. He requests that anyone who has taken a test on 12 or 13 February and has not received his result be contacted “or who has an incomplete test registration card”.

Speaking to Sky News on Monday, UK vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi believes the person “would probably have a home kit or a test kit from the local authority”.

The other two cases identified in England belong to a home in the Gloucestershire region with a history of travel to Brazil, PHE said. The two people “have been self-isolating properly” and there are “minimal reasons to believe there will be more outreach,” Zahawi added.

Contract tracers contact all passengers on São Paulo’s Swiss Air LX318 flight via Zurich, which landed in London on 10 February. All will be tested at home, PHE said.

The flight landed days before the UK imposed a ten-day hotel quarantine system at its expense. However, it came almost a month after the UK banned direct flights from Brazil. But UK citizens and residents have been able to return by indirect routes.
Deputy Labor Party deputy director Angela Rayner said the spread of the P.1 variant was “more evidence that the failure to introduce a hotel quarantine was reckless and dangerous.” in a post on Twitter.
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“The continued refusal to establish a comprehensive system leaves us exposed to mutations and new variants coming to our country from abroad. The same mistakes over and over again,” he added.

The P.1 variant is suspected to feed a resurgence of viral spread in Brazil. It was found in 42% of specimens in a survey conducted in Manaus and since then, cases have appeared in the United States and Japan.

Variant P.1 has mutations in common with the variant identified in South Africa, which could mean that it is more contagious and can help bypass vaccines. “This variant may respond less well to current vaccines, but more work needs to be done to understand this,” PHE said Sunday.

“Recent reports from Manaus in Brazil, where variant P.1 feeds an increase in infections, suggest that this variant is responsible for re-infecting individuals who were previously infected with a different variant of the virus,” said Lawrence Young, professor of molecular oncology at Warwick Medical School, according to a statement sent by the UK’s Science Media Center.

“That’s why it’s even more important to do everything we can to stop the spread of this virus and all other variants, including strict border controls and an efficient system of testing, tracking and isolation,” he said.

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