Why have 21 fliers not been contacted over Brazil variant?
SCOTTISH Ministers have been accused of failing to act quickly enough to track down air passengers who could be infected with the Brazil variant of Covid.
Three oil workers tested positive for the P1 strain after taking a British Airways flight from Heathrow to Aberdeen in January.
Yet more than a fifth of the 90 passengers are still to be traced.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman insisted last week that they had not been contacted as data provided was ‘incomplete’ or ‘incorrect’.
Yesterday, the Scottish Government gave up the search altogether, confirming it had stopped contact tracing despite having more than 20 people still to call.
Last night, aviation insiders said the airline had handed passengers’ email addresses and phone numbers over to health authorities.
They said they lacked information for fewer than ten people on the flight – raising questions as to why health authorities say they cannot get in touch with the rest.
The source said: ‘Any time a customer flies with British Airways they get their mobile numbers, their email addresses, everything like that, so whatever information they have they will give it to the authorities when they ask.’
They added that when someone books through a travel agent, the airline does not have direct access to their information.
However, they said: ‘It wasn’t a busy flight so the number of people who didn’t provide British Airways with all the information is extremely small, under ten.
‘Anything they had on those people they gave to officials.’
Yesterday, Ms Freeman admitted public health officials had not contacted 21 people but ‘advanced contact tracing has now ceased’.
She encouraged anyone who took the BA 1312 flight from Heathrow to Aberdeen on January 29 to call health officials on 0800 030 8012.
Last month, three oil workers who had been on the plane tested positive for coronavirus after returning to the Grampian area from Brazil via Paris and London.
As quarantine hotels were not in place, they were asked to isolate in managed accommodation provided by their employers.
Health officials have known of their positive tests for weeks, however they only received confirmation that they were infected with the Brazilian strain last week, as they had to wait for genomic sequencing to take place.
The virus mutation, linked to Manaus in Brazil, is ‘of concern’ as it may spread more rapidly and respond less well to vaccines.
Once it was known they had brought in the variant, contact tracing teams were scrambled to get hold of other passengers.
Ms Freeman said last week: ‘Part of the difficulty is where the data we’ve been given is incomplete, so it’s harder to track those individuals down.’
Last night, a spokesman for the Scottish Government said the problem centred around travellers not filling out passenger locator forms in full before departure.
However, the aviation insider said all information, bar that of those who had booked their flight through a travel agent, had been given to the health authorities via the airlines. Last night, a British Airways spokesman said the airline had supported all requests of information from Public Health Scotland.
He added: ‘Like all airlines, we follow the advice of the local health authorities and work closely with them, including supporting any requests.’
Yesterday, the Scottish Government said no further cases of the Brazil variant had been identified.
Ms Freeman said: ‘Since sequencing of the P1 variant was confirmed on February 27, enhanced contact tracing has identified around 300 further contacts or contacts of contacts who, where appropriate, were offered testing on a precautionary basis and advised to self-isolate.’
She added that a school had been part of such enhanced contact
‘Anything they had they gave to the officials’
‘Every effort has been made to contact people’
tracing but the risk to pupils, staff and their families was ‘very low.’
Addressing concerns about the pace of the contact tracing effort, a Government spokesman said: ‘Every effort has been made to contact all passengers on the flight using the contact details that they provided.
‘International travellers are required by law to fill out a passenger locator form prior to departure, which is submitted to the Home Office.
‘However, some of the data we have been given in this case is incomplete.
‘Domestic travellers are not required to fill out a locator form, and we are using all available options and doing everything possible to contact all passengers.
‘Contact tracers are working with flight manifests and telephone information from the Community Health Index to make contact.
‘Some passengers only have international telephone numbers, so it’s possible they are no longer in Scotland.’