Race on to halt spread of Brazilian mutation
Fears new strain could derail the plan for lifting lockdown
HEALTH officials are racing to contain the mutant Brazilian variant amid fears it could derail plans to lift lockdown.
Six people in the UK have tested positive for the P1 strain, which originated in Manaus, Brazil and has a mutation that helps it evade existing vaccines.
Government scientists warned that if it is allowed to spread the nation could ‘go backwards’ in its fight against the virus. Public Health England (PHE) said that the risk will increase when children go back to school next week.
But Health Secretary Matt Hancock said last night: ‘We do not think there is any need to change the approach on schools for Monday because of this new variant. In five of the six cases we have been in contact with them, and we have a high degree of confidence that they followed quarantine.
‘With the sixth case, we are trying to track down this individual but we have not seen any community spread. It doesn’t change our assessment of the roadmap right now.’
The identity of one of the six confirmed cases is unknown because they failed to fill in a form properly. Health officials have enlisted the help of the Post Office in a desperate race to track down the individual.
Ministers admitted they have no idea where the unidentified person lives or if they had travelled abroad.
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said: ‘ We are working with the postal service to try and get other data to try and locate them, and this appeal is a belt and braces to try and make sure we locate them as quickly as possible.’
Mr Hancock appealed for anyone who took a Covid-19 test on February 12 or 13 but did not receive their result to come forward. Dr Susan Hopkins, of PHE, said national restrictions should prevent the Brazilian variant from ‘taking over’ for now. She added: ‘However, as we start to release national restrictions with the schools going back on March 8, that is where the risk starts to increase, and that’s why we really are clamping down on a number of measures to prevent the spread of these variants.’
The five other cases, in two people from one household in Gloucestershire and three others in the northeast of Scotland, are linked to travel.
The Brazilian variant is worrying because it contains the ‘ double whammy’ of two mutations that make it both more infectious and better at evading antibodies. The first, the N501Y mutation, is also found on the Kent variant and means it can bind to cells more easily and is more infectious. The second, the E484K mutation, helps the virus to evade antibodies, reducing the efficacy of vaccines by about one third.
Professor Graham Medley, a member of the Sage advisory group, said: ‘It is a variant of concern but we are going to be faced with these in the next six months as we move towards relaxing measures... there is always a risk that we might have to go backwards, and that’s what nobody wants to do.’
Asked what it would mean for the vaccination programme if the variant became widespread, Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College, told Times Radio: ‘I think about the effect that the Kent variant had on us, it just slowed everything up because suddenly things started to get a little bit worse again, and the end seemed a little bit further away.’ Professor Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said scientists are ‘optimistic’ that Covid-19 vaccines will still prevent severe disease when tested against new variants.
Vaccine manufacturers are working on ways of revising their jabs to make them more effective against newer variants. About 10 per cent of all positive Covid-19 tests undergo analysis through the UK’s genomic sequencing programme, which identifies what variant they are.
On the two cases identified in South Gloucestershire, Mr Zahawi said: ‘There is minimal reason to believe that there may be further spread because they have been isolating correctly. But we will be doing asymptomatic testing in South Gloucestershire.’
South Gloucestershire Council said there were no changes to its school reopening plans.