Covid vaccines cut risk of serious illness by 80% - BBC News

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A single shot of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid jab reduces the chance of needing hospital treatment by more than 80%, an analysis in England shows.

The Public Health England data showed the effect kicked in three to four weeks after vaccination.

It was based on people aged over 80 who were the first to receive the jab.

Government scientists hailed the result, but stressed that two doses were needed for the best protection.

It comes after similar findings were published by Scottish health authorities last week, which they hailed as "spectacular".

• When will it be my turn to be vaccinated?
• More than 20m in UK have had first Covid jab
• Brazil 'variant of concern' found in UK

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told a Downing Street briefing on Monday the latest vaccine results were "very strong".

He added: "They may also help to explain why the number of Covid admissions to intensive care units among people over 80 in the UK have dropped to single figures in the last couple of weeks."

Also speaking at the news conference, England's deputy chief medical officer - Prof Jonathan Van-Tam - said the data offered a glimpse of how the vaccine programme "is going to hopefully take us into a very different world in the next few months".

But he said it was "absolutely critical" that second doses "are still part of the course of immunisation against Covid-19 and no less important".

Prof Van-Tam stressed there was a "significant likelihood" that a second dose of a vaccine would "mature your immune response, possibly make it broader and almost certainly make it longer than it would otherwise be in relation to a first dose only."

More than 20 million people in the UK have had their first dose of a vaccine - over a third of the adult population.

Meanwhile, another 104 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus have been reported in the UK, and a further 5,455 new cases, according to the latest figures.

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The PHE data, which has not been peer reviewed, also suggested the Pfizer vaccine, which started being rolled out a month before the AstraZeneca vaccine, leads to an 83% reduction in deaths from Covid. This was based on people over the age of 80 who had died.

The data also showed vaccination cuts the risk of people over 70 developing any Covid symptoms by around 60%, three weeks after an initial dose.

Prof Van-Tam said the decision to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to older people was "clearly vindicated".

Some European nations have refused to give it to the over 65s because data from the trials was mainly on its effect among younger adults.

Prof Van-Tam said the judgement made by the UK authorities was that it was simply "not plausible" the vaccine would only work on younger adults.

He said other countries would doubtless be "very interested" in the data coming out of the UK.

Dr Mary Ramsay, Public Health England's head of immunisation, said there was growing evidence that the vaccines were working to reduce infections and save lives.

"While there remains much more data to follow, this is encouraging and we are increasingly confident that vaccines are making a real difference," she said.

However, more evidence is needed to know how well the vaccines protect against the Brazil variant that has recently been identified in the UK.

This variant has a mutation - E484 - that could reduce some of the effectiveness of the vaccines.

• LOOK-UP TOOL: How many cases in your area?
• LOCKDOWN RULES: What are they and when will they end?
• YOUR QUESTIONS: We answer your queries
• GLOBAL SPREAD: How many worldwide cases are there?
• TREATMENTS: What progress are we making to help people?

It was announced on Sunday that six new variant cases - three in England and three in Scotland - had been found through testing.

Health officials have been able to contact all but one of these people. The whereabouts of the remaining individual is unknown as they did not complete their test registration card.

It has prompted an appeal for anyone without a result from a test on 12 or 13 February to come forward immediately by calling 119.

The health secretary has denied that delays in imposing quarantine hotel measures on travellers to the UK put lives at risk, as officials continue to seek the individual.

Mr Hancock said there was "no evidence" the infected person had not followed home quarantine rules.

Earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK has "one of the toughest border regimes anywhere in the world for stopping people coming in to this country who may have variants of concern".

• BBC HEADROOM: Your mental health toolkit - Mindful tips, mood mixes and motivation
• NADIYA: ANXIETY AND ME: Nadiya Hussain sets out to find the cause of her anxiety, exploring the most effective, available treatments

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2021-03-01 20:37:02Z
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Covid vaccines cut risk of serious illness by 80% - BBC News

PA Media

A single shot of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid jab reduces the chance of needing hospital treatment by more than 80%, an analysis in England shows.

The Public Health England data showed the effect kicked in three to four weeks after vaccination.

It was based on people aged over 80 who were the first to receive the jab.

Government scientists hailed the result, but stressed that two doses were needed for the best protection.

It comes after similar findings were published by Scottish health authorities last week, which they hailed as "spectacular".

• When will it be my turn to be vaccinated?

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told a Downing Street briefing on Monday the latest vaccine results were "very strong".

He added: "They may also help to explain why the number of Covid admissions to intensive care units among people over 80 in the UK have dropped to single figures in the last couple of weeks."

Also speaking at the news conference, England's deputy chief medical officer - Prof Jonathan Van-Tam - said the data offered a glimpse of how the vaccine programme "is going to hopefully take us into a very different world in the next few months".

But he said it was "absolutely critical" that second doses "are still part of the course of immunisation against Covid-19 and no less important".

Prof Van-Tam stressed there was a "significant likelihood" that a second dose of a vaccine would "mature your immune response, possibly make it broader and almost certainly make it longer than it would otherwise be in relation to a first dose only."

More than 20 million people in the UK have had their first dose of a vaccine - over a third of the adult population.

Meanwhile, another 104 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus have been reported, and a further 5,455 new cases, according to the latest figures.

Getty Images

The PHE data, which has not been peer reviewed, also suggested the Pfizer vaccine, which started being rolled out a month before the AstraZeneca vaccine, leads to an 83% reduction in deaths from Covid. This was based on people over the age of 80 who had died.

The data also showed vaccination cuts the risk of people over 70 developing any Covid symptoms by around 60%, three weeks after an initial dose.

Prof Van-Tam said the decision to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to older people was "clearly vindicated".

Some European nations have refused to give it to the over 65s because data from the trials was mainly on its effect among younger adults.

Prof Van-Tam said the judgement made by the UK authorities was that it was simply "not plausible" the vaccine would only work on younger adults. He said other countries would doubtless be "very interested" in the data coming out of the UK.

And he added: "It shows us how - if we are patient... the vaccine programme is going to take us into a very different world in the next few months."

Dr Mary Ramsay, Public Health England's head of immunisation, said there was growing evidence that the vaccines were working to reduce infections and save lives.

"While there remains much more data to follow, this is encouraging and we are increasingly confident that vaccines are making a real difference," she said.

However, more evidence is needed to know how well the vaccines protect against the Brazil variant that has recently been identified in the UK.

This variant has a mutation - E484 - that could reduce some of the effectiveness of the vaccines.

It was announced on Sunday that six new variant cases - three in England and three in Scotland - had been found through testing.

Health officials have been able to contact all but one of these people. The whereabouts of the remaining individual is unknown as they did not complete their test registration card.

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2021-03-01 19:43:45Z
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Brazil virus variant found to evade natural immunity - Financial Times

The P.1 Covid-19 variant that originated in Brazil and has spread to more than 25 countries is around twice as transmissible as some other strains and is more likely to evade the natural immunity people usually develop from prior infection, according to a new international study.

The research, conducted by a UK-Brazilian team of researchers from institutions including Oxford university, Imperial College London, the University of São Paulo, found that the P.1 variant was between 1.4 and 2.2 times more transmissible than other variants circulating in Brazil. 

It was also “able to evade 25-61 per cent of protective immunity elicited by previous infection” with any earlier variant, the researchers found, in a sign that current vaccines could also be less effective against it.

International concern about the P.1 variant has escalated recently, with more than 25 countries detecting the variant, including Belgium, Sweden and the UK, which has identified six cases.

The scientists are expected to release a paper describing the research on Tuesday. The study has not yet been peer reviewed.

Dr Nuno Faria, associate professor at Oxford university and lead author on the study, said, “we can confidently say that P.1 has altered the epidemiological characteristics of the virus in Manaus but whether that is true in other settings we don’t yet know.”

He added, “we have no evidence so far that P.1 won’t respond to vaccines, at least for preventing serious disease.”

Which of the two variants [B.1.1.7 and P.1] was more transmissible “is a really important question that needs to be addressed”, Faria said.

The researchers have dated the emergence of the P.1 variant to November 6, 2020, around one month before cases began to surge for a second time in the Brazilian city of Manaus. They found that the proportion of cases classified as P.1 in Manaus increased from zero to 87 per cent in the space of 7 weeks. 

The paper concluded: “Our results further show that natural immunity waning alone is unlikely to explain the observed dynamics in Manaus, with support for P.1 possessing altered epidemiological characteristics.”

“Studies to evaluate real-world vaccine efficacy in response to P.1 are urgently needed,” it added.

The researchers also found that infections were 10 to 80 per cent more likely to result in death in Manaus after the emergence of P.1. However, the authors cautioned that it was not possible to determine whether this meant the variant was more lethal or whether it was a result of increased strain on the city’s healthcare system, or a combination of both. 

The P.1 variant has over 17 mutations, which alter its genetic sequence from the virus originally identified in Wuhan, including 3 key changes to the spike protein that it uses to enter human cells.

Researchers in Brazil have been using genetic sequencing technology developed by Oxford Nanopore in the UK to identify and track the variant. The technology was first used in Brazil during the Zika outbreak in 2015.

Dr Leila Luheshi, director of applied and clinical markets at Oxford Nanopore, told the Financial Times that while the B.1.1.7 variant in the UK has similar properties of high transmissibility to P.1 — it is thought to be around 1.5 times as transmissible as variants that preceded it — there was no evidence to date that it evaded past natural immunity in the same way. Studies so far have also shown that current vaccines retain their efficacy against B.1.1.7.

Luheshi said that the concern with P.1 is that “because it has these mutations around the spike . . . the hypothesis is that the vaccine will be less effective.” But she added that there is not yet definitive evidence to support this theory. 

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2021-03-01 19:29:51Z
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Brazil virus variant found to evade natural immunity - Financial Times

The P.1 Covid-19 variant that originated in Brazil and has spread to more than 25 countries is around twice as transmissible as some other strains and is more likely to evade the natural immunity people usually develop from prior infection, according to a new international study.

The research, conducted by a UK-Brazilian team of researchers from institutions including Oxford university, Imperial College London, the University of São Paulo, found that the P.1 variant was between 1.4 and 2.2 times more transmissible than other variants circulating in Brazil. 

It was also “able to evade 25-61 per cent of protective immunity elicited by previous infection” with any earlier variant, the researchers found, in a sign that current vaccines could also be less effective against it.

International concern about the P.1 variant has escalated recently, with more than 25 countries detecting the variant, including Belgium, Sweden and the UK, which has identified six cases.

The scientists are expected to release a paper describing the research on Tuesday. Dr Nuno Faria, the lead author, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The study has not yet been peer reviewed.

The researchers have dated the emergence of the P.1 variant to November 6, 2020, around one month before cases began to surge for a second time in the Brazilian city of Manaus. They found that the proportion of cases classified as P.1 in Manaus increased from zero to 87 per cent in the space of 7 weeks. 

The paper concluded: “Our results further show that natural immunity waning alone is unlikely to explain the observed dynamics in Manaus, with support for P.1 possessing altered epidemiological characteristics.”

“Studies to evaluate real-world vaccine efficacy in response to P.1 are urgently needed,” it added.

The researchers also found that infections were 10 to 80 per cent more likely to result in death in Manaus after the emergence of P.1. However, the authors cautioned that it was not possible to determine whether this meant the variant was more lethal or whether it was a result of increased strain on the city’s healthcare system, or a combination of both. 

The P.1 variant has over 17 mutations, which alter its genetic sequence from the virus originally identified in Wuhan, including 3 key changes to the spike protein that it uses to enter human cells.

Researchers in Brazil have been using genetic sequencing technology developed by Oxford Nanopore in the UK to identify and track the variant. The technology was first used in Brazil during the Zika outbreak in 2015.

Dr Leila Luheshi, director of applied and clinical markets at Oxford Nanopore, told the Financial Times that while the B.1.1.7 variant in the UK has similar properties of high transmissibility to P.1 — it is thought to be around 1.5 times as transmissible as variants that preceded it — there was no evidence to date that it evaded past natural immunity in the same way. Studies so far have also shown that current vaccines retain their efficacy against B.1.1.7.

Luheshi said that the concern with P.1 is that “because it has these mutations around the spike . . . the hypothesis is that the vaccine will be less effective.” But she added that there is not yet definitive evidence to support this theory. 

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2021-03-01 18:00:13Z
52781409729547

COVID-19: Single AstraZeneca or Pfizer dose 80% effective at preventing hospitalisations in over 80s - Sky News

A single shot of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines is more than 80% effective at preventing hospitalisation among the over 80s, the health secretary has said.

Speaking at a Downing Street news conference, Matt Hancock hailed "exciting new data" showing the effectiveness of the two COVID-19 jabs.

According to a pre-print study from Public Health England:

• The vaccines are more than 80% effective at preventing hospitalisations in over 80s after one dose
• Protection against symptomatic COVID in those over 70, four weeks after the first jab, ranged between 57-61% for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 60-73% for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine
• For the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, there is evidence it leads to an 83% reduction in deaths from the virus.

Mr Hancock said the fact that the number of hospital admissions was falling faster than that of cases - particularly among the older age groups who were given a jab first - "is a sign that the vaccine is working".

The rate of decline in deaths among the older age groups is also faster than in the under 80s, the health secretary said.

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"This shows, in the real world, across the UK right now that the vaccine is helping both to protect the NHS and to save lives," he declared.

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, one of England's deputy chief medical officers, said the data "gives us those first glimpses of how, if we are patient, and we give this vaccine programme time to have its full effect, it is going to hopefully take us into a very different world in the next few months".

More from Covid-19

He said that "in time", he expected the UK's vaccine rollout to lower levels of the virus, reduce the likelihood of infections affecting the older and more vulnerable and result in milder cases for people in those groups.

But while Professor Van-Tam said "there's a lot to look forwards to", the "problem isn't fixed yet".

"It's very tempting to just go, 'Right, we've seen the results, that means the problem is fixed'," he said.

"The problem isn't fixed yet but we definitely have identified a way of fixing the problem and the early data show us how to do that and where to advance from here."

It comes after six cases of a COVID-19 "variant of concern" from Brazil were detected in the United Kingdom.

Three cases of the P.1 coronavirus variant have been confirmed in England and three in Scotland, Public Health England said.

Two of the cases in England come from a household in South Gloucestershire, where one person returned from Brazil in mid-February, before hotel quarantine measures were introduced.

The third case is unlinked and the whereabouts of the individual unknown, as they did not complete their test registration card.

The three Scottish cases were found in asymptomatic passengers who flew into Aberdeen on the BA1312 flight from London Heathrow on Friday.

They tested positive while self-isolating and contact tracing of other passengers on the flight is currently ongoing.

The Scottish government said there was "no reason to believe" the P.1 variant is in circulation in Scotland.

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2021-03-01 17:48:45Z
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Brazilian variant: Boris Johnson defends UK Covid border measures - BBC News

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has defended the government's measures to prevent new coronavirus variants being imported into the UK.

It comes as officials seek a person in England who has been infected with a concerning variant of the virus first found in Brazil.

They are one of six cases of the P1 variant found in the UK in February.

Mr Johnson said there is a "massive effort" under way to prevent the Brazilian variant from spreading.

The missing person infected with the variant is understood to have used a home testing kit, but did not complete their registration form properly.

It has prompted an appeal for anyone without a result from a test on 12 or 13 February to come forward immediately by calling 119.

Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said it was not known whether or not the unidentified person had recently been abroad, so it was not clear if they would have been self-isolating while they were infected.

On Monday, a further 104 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported, with 5,455 new cases identified across the UK.

While figures are often lower at the start of the week due to reporting lags, cases are down by 49% compared to last Monday.

More than 20.2 million people have received a first dose of a Covid vaccine, according to the latest government figures.

• How worrying is the Brazil coronavirus variant?
• Brazil 'variant of concern' found in UK
• More than 20m in UK have had first Covid jab
• 'Build walls higher' to stop Covid variants, says FM

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Health Secretary Matt Hancock will hold a meeting later to update MPs from all parties about the P1 variant.

He will joined by Public Health England's Dr Susan Hopkins and England's deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Van-Tam at a Downing Street briefing at 17:00 GMT.

Labour said there had been a lack of a "comprehensive" border system.

But Mr Johnson said: "We have got one of the toughest border regimes anywhere in the world for stopping people coming in to this country who may have variants of concern."

Speaking during a visit to Stoke-on-Trent, he said the government had moved "as fast as we could" with introducing hotel quarantine measures, describing it as a "very tough regime".

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the UK's border restrictions were "robust" and that variants were "a normal feature of any pandemic".

• Hotel quarantine: Isolation and brown paper bags
• First travellers arrive for hotel quarantine stay
• Quarantine plan 'delay' risking lives - Labour

The hotel quarantine rule came into force on 15 February. It means that travellers coming to England from 33 countries - including Brazil - must pay to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days, while in Scotland the rule applies to international travellers from all countries.

Before that date, travellers arriving into the UK still needed to self-isolate in their homes for 10 days.

All travellers to the UK also need to present a negative Covid test result, taken a maximum of 72 hours before their departure.

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt told BBC Radio 4's The World at One the discovery of the six cases showed the need for tighter controls and the government had "to look at what has gone wrong".

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the search for the infected individual demonstrated the "slowness of the government to close off even the major routes" and said he still thought "we have not secured our borders in the way that we should have done".

Can we get rid of the Brazil variant?

It is tempting to think that, if officials can identify the one missing case, the UK will be able to stamp out the Brazil variant.

But it's unlikely this will be possible. There will no doubt be more cases either of this variant or others circulating with the E484 mutation that allows the virus to escape some of the effect of the vaccines.

That's because not all positive cases can be checked for variants. The UK carries out nearly half of the genomic sequencing in the world and can check around 25,000 positive tests a week for variants.

That means about a quarter of positive cases were checked last week, but a month ago - with infection rates higher - it was under one in 10.

What is more, not everyone who is positive comes forward for a test in the first place. We are seeing just the tip of the iceberg.

So what is the strategy? Keep cases low, and where possible try to limit the spread of these variants.

And in the future, update the vaccines to work better against the variants - if that is needed.

There have been concerns vaccines may not be as effective against the variant, but NHS England's Prof Stephen Powis said vaccines could be "rapidly adapted".

Dr Hopkins said the UK was more advanced than many other countries at identifying the variants and mutations, and was therefore able to act quickly.

Why is it difficult to track the infected person?

Health officials believe the missing person may have used a home testing kit.

Every home testing kit has a unique barcode on it.

People must register this barcode online to link the test to a person's contact details.

Without doing this, the test will effectively be anonymous.

So, what is likely an error in that registration process meant the positive result has been picked up but there is no one to send it to.

Tests done in person at drive-thru or walk-in centres are less likely to see this occur, as much of the information is filled in before the person arrives and there are staff on hand to make sure it is done correctly.

In any given week, around 1.5% of cases passed on to contact tracers do not have the person's contact details.

Where are the other five cases?

The unidentified England case of the Brazil variant is not currently linked to five other UK cases.

Two of the cases are from the same household in South Gloucestershire. They tested positive after someone returned from Brazil on 10 February - five days before the government's hotel quarantine rule came into force. Everyone in five postcode areas of South Gloucestershire is now being invited to take a Covid test, even if they do not have symptoms.

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Two other people in the same household have also since tested positive for Covid - but tests are still ongoing to check if it is the same variant.

The other three cases are Scottish residents who flew to Aberdeen from Brazil via Paris and London, the Scottish government said.

Holyrood said the three people tested positive while self-isolating. Other passengers who were on the same flight to Aberdeen are now being contacted and there is no reason to believe the variant is in circulation in Scotland, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said.

• LOOK-UP TOOL: How many cases in your area?
• LOCKDOWN RULES: What are they and when will they end?
• YOUR QUESTIONS: We answer your queries
• GLOBAL SPREAD: How many worldwide cases are there?
• TREATMENTS: What progress are we making to help people?

• BBC HEADROOM: Your mental health toolkit - Mindful tips, mood mixes and motivation
• NADIYA: ANXIETY AND ME: Nadiya Hussain sets out to find the cause of her anxiety, exploring the most effective, available treatments

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2021-03-01 16:38:18Z
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Brazilian variant: Boris Johnson defends UK Covid border measures - BBC News

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has defended the government's measures to prevent new coronavirus variants being imported into the UK.

It comes as officials seek a person in England who has been infected with a concerning variant of the virus first found in Brazil.

They are one of six cases of the P1 variant found in the UK in February.

Mr Johnson said there is a "massive effort" under way to prevent the Brazilian variant from spreading.

The missing person infected with the variant is understood to have used a home testing kit, but did not complete their registration form properly.

It has prompted an appeal for anyone without a result from a test on 12 or 13 February to come forward immediately by calling 119.

Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said it was not known whether or not the unidentified person had recently been abroad, so it was not clear if they would have been self-isolating while they were infected.

• How worrying is the Brazil coronavirus variant?
• Brazil 'variant of concern' found in UK
• More than 20m in UK have had first Covid jab
• 'Build walls higher' to stop Covid variants, says FM

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Health Secretary Matt Hancock will hold a meeting later to update MPs from all parties about the P1 variant.

He will joined by Public Health England's Dr Susan Hopkins and England's deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Van-Tam at a Downing Street briefing at 17:00 GMT.

Labour said there had been a lack of a "comprehensive" border system.

But Mr Johnson said: "We have got one of the toughest border regimes anywhere in the world for stopping people coming in to this country who may have variants of concern."

Speaking during a visit to Stoke-on-Trent, he said the government had moved "as fast as we could" with introducing hotel quarantine measures, describing it as a "very tough regime".

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the UK's border restrictions were "robust" and that variants were "a normal feature of any pandemic".

• Hotel quarantine: Isolation and brown paper bags
• First travellers arrive for hotel quarantine stay
• Quarantine plan 'delay' risking lives - Labour

The hotel quarantine rule came into force on 15 February. It means that travellers coming to England from 33 countries - including Brazil - must pay to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days, while in Scotland the rule applies to international travellers from all countries.

Before that date, travellers arriving into the UK still needed to self-isolate in their homes for 10 days.

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt told BBC Radio 4's The World at One the discovery of the six cases showed the need for tighter controls and the government had "to look at what has gone wrong".

Can we get rid of the Brazil variant?

It is tempting to think that, if officials can identify the one missing case, the UK will be able to stamp out the Brazil variant.

But it's unlikely this will be possible. There will no doubt be more cases either of this variant or others circulating with the E484 mutation that allows the virus to escape some of the effect of the vaccines.

That's because not all positive cases can be checked for variants. The UK carries out nearly half of the genomic sequencing in the world and can check around 25,000 positive tests a week for variants.

That means about a quarter of positive cases were checked last week, but a month ago - with infection rates higher - it was under one in 10.

What is more, not everyone who is positive comes forward for a test in the first place. We are seeing just the tip of the iceberg.

So what is the strategy? Keep cases low, and where possible try to limit the spread of these variants.

And in the future, update the vaccines to work better against the variants - if that is needed.

There have been concerns vaccines may not be as effective against the variant, but NHS England's Prof Stephen Powis said vaccines could be "rapidly adapted".

Dr Hopkins said the UK was more advanced than many other countries at identifying the variants and mutations, and was therefore able to act quickly.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that PHE was "really clamping down" with measures to prevent the spread of variants ahead of lockdown measures being eased in England.

Why is it difficult to track the infected person?

Health officials believe the missing person may have used a home testing kit.

Every home testing kit has a unique barcode on it.

People must register this barcode online to link the test to a person's contact details.

Without doing this, the test will effectively be anonymous.

So, what is likely an error in that registration process meant the positive result has been picked up but there is no one to send it to.

Tests done in person at drive-thru or walk-in centres are less likely to see this occur, as much of the information is filled in before the person arrives and there are staff on hand to make sure it is done correctly.

In any given week, around 1.5% of cases passed on to contact tracers do not have the person's contact details.

Where are the other five cases?

The unidentified England case of the Brazil variant is not currently linked to five other UK cases.

Two of the cases are from the same household in South Gloucestershire. They tested positive after someone returned from Brazil on 10 February - five days before the government's hotel quarantine rule came into force. Everyone in five postcode areas of South Gloucestershire is now being invited to take a Covid test, even if they did not have symptoms.

Two other people in the same household have also since tested positive for Covid - but tests are still ongoing to check if it is the same variant, so they are not included in the overall UK total of six.

The other three cases are Scottish residents who flew to Aberdeen from Brazil via Paris and London, the Scottish government said.

Holyrood said the three people tested positive while self-isolating. Other passengers who were on the same flight to Aberdeen are now being contacted and there is no reason to believe the variant is in circulation in Scotland, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said.

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Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds, who has written to the home secretary calling for stronger measures, said the news of the Brazil variant cases was "deeply concerning" and that it was "vital" everything was done to contain it.

All travellers to the UK also need to present a negative Covid test result, taken a maximum of 72 hours before their departure.

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2021-03-01 15:11:46Z
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