Babak Belurs

Selasa, 02 Maret 2021

COVID-19: Hunt for mystery person infected with Brazil variant narrows to 379 households - Sky News

The hunt for an unidentified person who tested positive for the Brazil variant of coronavirus has narrowed to 379 households in southeast England, the health secretary has said.

In total, six cases of the P1 coronavirus variant first found in Brazil have been discovered in the UK.

One has still yet to be identified after the individual failed to complete their test registration card.

But Matt Hancock told the House of Commons on Tuesday that officials had now "identified the batch of home test kits in question".

He added: "Our search has narrowed from the whole country down to 379 households in the southeast of England and we're contacting each one.

"We're grateful that a number of potential cases have come forward following the call that we put out over the weekend."

There are concerns that the Brazil variant may spread more easily, might evade the immune system, or that vaccines might be less effective against it.

Mr Hancock said the UK's current vaccines had "not yet been studied against this variant" but that work was underway to "understand what impact it might have".

"We do know this variant has caused significant challenges in Brazil," he added.

"So we're doing all we can to stop the spread of thios new variant in the UK, to analyse its effects and to develop an updated vaccine that works on all these variants of concern and protect the progress we've made as a nation."

Of the five other cases of the Brazil variant in the UK, two have been identified in south Gloucestershire and three in Scotland.

All five of the identified cases are linked to travel from Brazil to the UK.

Of the Brazil variant cases found in the UK, Mr Hancock told MPs that "five of these six people quarantined at home as they were legally required to do".

"Unfortunately one of these six cases completed a test but didn't successfully complete the contact details. Incidents like this are rare and only occur in around 0.1% of tests," he added.

The health secretary said there was "no information" to suggest the variant has spread further, but confirmed testing and genome sequencing was being increased in south Gloucestershire "as a precaution".

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2021-03-02 13:52:30Z
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Brazilian P1 variant may spread more easily and could evade immune system, scientists find - Sky News

The first assessment of the Brazilian variant of COVID-19, newly identified in the UK, shows it may spread more easily - and evade the immune system.

Scientists from Brazil and the UK estimate the variant, known as P1, is 1.4 to 2.2 times more transmissible than previous versions of coronavirus circulating in Manaus, the Amazon city where it originated.

It is also able to evade between 25% and 61% of protective immunity from previous infection, according researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Sao Paulo.

The study has not been peer reviewed.

Live COVID updates from the UK and around the world

Almost 70% of the Manaus population had immunity from the first wave of COVID infections last spring, yet a surge of re-infections at the start of this year led to hospitals in the city being overwhelmed.

Six UK cases of the P1 variant have been identified in people who recently returned from Brazil.

Three cases were identified in Scotland, with another two in South Gloucestershire in England.

And one case has yet to be traced.

The researchers are cautious about predicting what could happen to the new variant in the UK.

Professor Sharon Peacock, who heads the COG-UK, which analyses the genetic make-up of variants, warned that the findings should not be generalised to other cities.

She said the study was "excellent evidence of the biological properties", but added it was not clear "how it will pan out" in the UK.

The P1 variant shares the same N501Y mutation as the Kent version of the virus, which is now dominant in the UK.

But for the P1 variant to overtake the UK's resident strain it would need some competitive advantage.

The study suggests that infections were between 10% and 80% more likely to result in mortality after the P1 variant started spreading in Manaus.

But they can't be sure whether this was because the virus was more lethal or because people struggled to get medical care.

Dr Thomas Mellan, from the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College, said: "There was a lack of oxygen and there was a mortality with that. We can't disentangle that from the effects of the disease."

The P1 variant has taken a while to spread outside Manaus, despite flights continuing to operate from the city.

Professor Ester Sabino, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Sao Paulo, said that bodes well for the UK's chances for containing the infection.

She said: "You need many introductions of the virus to start an epidemic. Six is too few.

"There were flights from Manaus to Sao Paulo in December but no cases. It is not easy to seed.

"With contact tracing the risk [in the UK] will decrease."

Separate to the study, Professor Christophe Fraser, an epidemiologist from the University of Oxford, said the P1 variant "can reinfect people who have been infected naturally".

"In Manaus... that population had had an incredibly high infection rate in the first wave, and yet was re-infected," he told Sky News on Tuesday.

"What we don't know is the degree of protection the vaccines provide against this strain.

"We have quite a lot of data that suggests we should be a little bit concerned on the possibility that it could spread.

"We think, probably, that it [the vaccine] would probably reduce the rate of hospitalisation or death, but there's enough to be concerned.

"In the long-term, it may be we have to update the vaccines, but we really don't want to be updating the vaccines before the summer.

"We need the infection rates to stay low over the summer, so we really need to intensely contain the emergence of these new variants."

Increased testing - including asymptomatic testing - and enhanced contact-tracing have been introduced in South Gloucestershire following the discovery of the two cases of the P1 variant.

But local public health officials have said the risk to the local community was judged to be "very low" and the measures were "precautionary".

As part of the hunt for the unidentified third case of the P1 variant in England, anyone who took a test on 12 and 13 February and has not received a result, or has an uncompleted test registration card, is being asked to come forward immediately.

And moves are under way to contact passengers on Swiss Air flight LX318 from Sao Paulo through Zurich to London Heathrow on 10 February.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the government's action to prevent the import of new COVID variants from abroad, after Labour accused the government of being too slow to introduce tougher border measures.

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 P1 variant is in circulation in Scotland.

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Budget 2021: Lord Hague throws his weight behind calls for Rishi Sunak to raise taxes to deal with COVID spend - Sky News

Former Conservative leader William Hague has thrown his weight behind calls for tax rises at this week's budget in order to deal with Britain's huge COVID spending.

In a major intervention, the senior Tory said the country had "reached the point where at least some business and personal taxes have to go up".

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is reportedly considering a hike in corporation tax when he reveals his budget on Wednesday.

It has also been claimed he will seek to raise £6bn by freezing income tax thresholds for at least three years.

Mr Sunak has hinted his budget will include an extension of support schemes for furloughed workers and businesses while COVID restrictions remain.

But he has also warned of the need to "level" with the public about the large economic cost of the pandemic.

In the 10 months since the start of last April, public sector net debt has risen by more than £315bn during the coronavirus crisis.

Calling on Mr Sunak to begin dealing with the UK's mounting debts this week, Lord Hague wrote in an article for the Daily Telegraph: "When the chancellor gets to his feet tomorrow, he will no doubt continue to spend on a massive scale.

"But it is also time to rediscover and reassert some basic truths of fiscal conservatism and cast illusions aside."

The ex-foreign secretary added: "It pains me to say, after spending much of my life arguing for lower taxes, that we have reached the point where at least some business and personal taxes have to go up.

"To maintain the opposite viewpoint, you have to believe in one or all of the following three arguments: that we need a smaller state, and it is spending that should be cut as soon as possible after the crisis; that higher tax rates generally produce less revenue anyway; or that we can go on borrowing at very low interests for so long that all tax increases can safely be postponed.

"All three of these arguments are now dangerous illusions."

Lord Hague, who is known to be close to Mr Sunak, said that the argument for a smaller state "is already lost" with austerity "jettisoned at the last general election".

He added that the state was already set to be bigger in the coming years due to the need for government spending on healthcare, vaccinations and support for young people impacted by the pandemic.

When he stood down as an MP at the 2015 general election, Lord Hague was succeeded in his Richmond constituency in Yorkshire by Mr Sunak, who last year said: "I speak to William a lot, he's always been an enormous source of advice to me from the first day I was a MP and grappling with the basics."

Another senior Tory, ex-chancellor Ken Clarke, has also called on Mr Sunak to raise taxes at the budget and ditch the Conservatives' election manifesto promises on the pensions triple lock or to not raise income tax, national insurance or VAT rates.

"While there are some elderly people who have been very badly hit by the crisis… the comfortable elderly have really done rather well," Lord Clarke told Sky News.

However, former prime minister David Cameron and ex-chancellor Philip Hammond have warned Mr Sunak against immediate tax rises as the UK still deals with the COVID crisis.

Labour has said that now is "not the time" for tax rises, but has signalled it could support an increase in corporation tax in the future.

Watch and follow the budget live tomorrow with special coverage and analysis from 12.30pm. A special edition of the Sky News Daily podcast will be available to listen to from 7pm.

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2021-03-02 10:33:10Z
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Brazilian P1 variant may spread more easily and could evade immune system, scientists find - Sky News