Person carrying Brazil variant traced

The mystery person infected with the Manaus variant of coronavirus has been found.

Officials have been hunting for the unknown individual after cases of the variant of concern were detected in the UK.

Six cases of the P1 variant, first identified in the Brazilian city of Manaus, have been found – three in Scotland and three in England.

A public appeal was made for one of those people in England to come forward after they took a test in February but left no contact details.

Earlier this week, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the hunt for the infected person had been narrowed down to 379 households in the south-east of England.

Public health officials have found the unnamed person and traced all of their contacts.

The individual’s location has not been reported.

The P1 variant, which was also detected in travellers from Brazil to Japan, was associated with a surge of cases in Manaus late last year.

It is among a total of four variants of concern being tracked by scientists in the UK.

A study this week suggested between 25% and 61% of people in Manaus who had previously had Covid were susceptible to reinfection with the concerning P1 variant.

The variant carries a mutation in the spike protein called E484K, raising concerns that vaccines may not be as effective against it.

Meanwhile, figures from the Office for National Statistics estimate around one in 220 people in private households in England had Covid-19 between February 21 and 27, down from around one in 145 the previous week.