Fears as six cases of new Brazilian strain found in UK

A FEARED Brazilian strain of Covid-19 has been found in the UK for the first time, it was revealed last night.

Six cases of the P1 strain, which has devastated the city of Manaus, have been detected.

The mutant variant of the virus could spread more quickly and may be more resistant to vaccines.

The discovery sparked claims that Britain was reckless in delaying imposing new quarantine measures for travellers and cast a shadow over the achievement yesterday in passing the 20million mark for the first dose of vaccine.

One of the cases, found in South Gloucestershire, flew in from Brazil only five days before arrivals from there became required to quarantine in a hotel for ten nights.

Another has not been identified – and could be anywhere – because they failed to fill in their details when they were tested for Covid.

The P1 strain is considered a variant of concern as it shares key mutations

‘Exposed to mutations from overseas’

with the strain detected in South Africa. There are fears that existing vaccines may be less effective against it, but more research is needed.

Although only six cases of the Brazilian variant have been identified in Britain, it is likely to be more widespread.

Labour accused the Government of dragging its feet and taking weeks to set up quarantine hotels.

The policy was announced in the Commons by Home Secretary Priti Patel on January 27 but it did not come into effect until February 15.

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds repeated calls for hotel quarantine to apply to all arrivals, not just those from a ‘ red list’ of 33 countries including Brazil.

‘This is further proof that the delay in introducing a hotel quarantine was reckless and the continuing refusal to put in place a comprehensive system leaves us exposed to mutations coming from overseas,’ he said.

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, added: ‘This troubling development shows the weaknesses in the Government’s Covid border measures. We need to know urgently how all these cases have arrived in the country and why they weren’t prevented or picked up on arrival, so that lessons can be quickly learnt and policies changed to protect the vaccine programme from further cases arriving.’

Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, said: ‘We knew this kind of thing was going to happen. It just reinforces how important border control is if we’re really going to stamp out infection.

‘This is a bit of a wake-up call. If we’re going to do it [hotel quarantine], you either do it properly for arrivals from all countries... or not at all.’

It emerged last week that on average only 1 per cent of arrivals – 150 people a day – are going into quarantine hotels.

Public Health England (PHE) said two of the six cases of P1 were from one household in South Gloucestershire. They have not been named.

One travelled on Swiss Air LX318 from Sao Paulo via Zurich to Heathrow on February 10 and has since been isolating at home. Health authorities are tracing all passengers on the flight.

It is understood that officials are waiting to find out whether two other household members who tested positive for Covid have the P1 strain.

‘Surge testing’ is being done in five postcode areas near Bristol covering Bradley Stoke, Patchway and Little Stoke. All those aged over 16 in the area are urged to get a test, even if they have no symptoms.

Three more cases were found in the Grampian region of Scotland. They flew from Brazil to Aberdeen via Paris and London, and entered self-isolation for ten days before testing positive for Covid-19.

The identity and location of the sixth person with P1 is unknown. They returned a test to a laboratory in England – but failed to complete details of their name and address.

PHE is asking anyone who took a test on February 12 or 13 and has not received their result or has an uncompleted test registration card to contact them by calling 119.

Last night a senior Government source insisted: ‘We have some of the strongest border measures in the world.

‘The managed quarantine system was brought in to provide an additional layer of protection.’