‘Please get in touch’: UK hunts for mystery spreader of Covid variant
LONDON: Britain on Monday appealed for a mystery individual infected with a highly transmissible Brazilian variant of the novel coronavirus to come forward, more than two weeks after they tested positive but failed to give proper contact details.
Britain said six cases had been detected of the P.1 variant identified in the Brazilian city of Manaus, against which current vaccines appear to be less effective. Two were in South Gloucestershire in England and three in Scotland. But a sixth individual in England, one of more than a million people tested on February
12-13, had yet to be identified because their test card was not filled in properly.
“If you’ve had a test on the 12th or 13th of February, (and) haven’t had your results back, please get in touch,” vaccination minister Nadhim Zahawi told Times Radio. “We are working with the postal system to try and locate them.”
The P.1 variant includes mutations similar to those found in a variant first detected in South Africa known as B.1.351, which has raised similar concerns.
Starting Monday in Europe, Italy will tighten curbs in some cities to counter an acceleration of the virus caused by new variants, particularly the strain first found in the UK. Oslo will close restaurants and shops to also curb an acceleration of new cases caused by virus strains.
Hong Kong plans to start bookings for Pfizer-BioNTech vaccinations this week. In Ghana, President Nana AkufoAddo is the first person in the world to get a shot under the Covax vaccine-sharing scheme, getting a dose of the Oxford/ AstraZeneca vaccine in a live broadcast.
PM Jacinda Ardern on Monday urged New Zealanders to “call out” virus rule-breakers as public anger builds over infringements that forced the country’s largest city back Auckland into lockdown.