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 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 Feb. 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.
Adam Finn, a member of the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and
Immunisation, told the BBC: "The evidence we have suggests that
certainly the South African variant and potentially this Brazilian
variant, which is somewhat similar - the vaccines we have at the
moment are less effective at reducing at least mild disease and
possibly transmission.
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 "We are optimistic that the
vaccines will continue to prevent severe
disease, but the evidence for that is still
fairly limited." One of the
cases in the household in South Gloucestershire had flown from Sao
Paulo in Brazil via Zurich to London, arriving on Feb. 10. Public
health officials said they were following up with all passengers.
All three of the Scottish cases were identified as people who had
flown from Brazil to Aberdeen via Paris and London who self-isolated
for the required period of 10 days.
By Sunday, over 20 million people in Britain had been given a first
dose of COVID-19 vaccine - just over 30% of the population, while
around 800,000 had had a second dose.
Manufacturers are working on measures to adapt their vaccines to
mutations of the virus.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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