Mystery Brazil variant carrier 'could be anywhere in England'

The person is one of first people in the UK to contract the Manaus variant, which may spread more quickly and respond less well to vaccines, and their location is unknown as they failed to properly fill in their details on their test registration card.

First detected in the remote Brazilian city which sits on the banks of the Amazon river, the Manau variant has been confirmed in the UK in six people, three in England and three in Scotland.

Two cases were confirmed in South Gloucestershire but the third English case has not been located and could be anywhere in the nation, with PHE saying the person did not complete their test registration card so their contact details are absent.

Anyone who took a test on February 12 or 13 and has not received a result, or has an uncompleted test registration card, is being asked to come forward immediately, as health officials scramble to track down the individual.

Critics said the development exposed the “weaknesses” in the border protections against new strains and condemned the Government for delaying toughening restrictions.

The Gloucestershire cluster was said to originate from one individual who travelled back from Brazil and arrived in London on February 10 – five days before the Government’s quarantine hotel policy came into force.

The traveller isolated at home with the rest of their household under the rules in place at the time. One member exhibited Covid symptoms before getting a test.

It is understood there were four positive tests in total in that household, two of which were confirmed with genetic sequencing to be the Manaus variant.

But officials are awaiting the results of sequencing on the outstanding two tests to see if they were infected by the Manaus strain.

PHE and NHS Test and Trace are contacting the passengers on Swiss Air flight LX318 travelling from Sao Paulo, through Zurich, and landing in London Heathrow on February 10.

The remaining unlocated case is not believed to be linked to the others because the virus was found to have slight genetic differences.

Officials said the individual’s test was processed on February 14, so believe it is likely they took it a day or two earlier.

They believe that person is unlikely to have taken their test at one of the regional test sites, where staff can check if contact details have been provided, but it could have been a home test or from local surge testing.

NHS England national medical director Professor Stephen Powis sought to allay concerns by saying vaccines can be quickly altered to tackle new strains.

“The new vaccines which are being used for Covid can be adapted very rapidly so it’s likely that if we do need to change the vaccine that can be done in months, rather than years, which was the case with the more traditional vaccines,” he said.

The chairwoman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, the Labour MP Yvette Cooper, said: “This troubling development shows the weaknesses in the Government’s Covid border measures.

“The Brazil variant was first identified a month before one of these cases was brought in on February 10 and many weeks after the Prime Minister was warned that indirect flights were a problem, yet the Government delayed putting stronger measures in place.

“We need to know urgently how all these cases have arrived in the country and why they weren’t prevented or picked up on arrival so that lessons can be quickly learnt and policies changed to protect the vaccine programme from further cases arriving.”

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the detection of the variant in the UK was “deeply concerning”.

“It is now vital that we do everything we can to contain it. But this is further proof that the delay in introducing a hotel quarantine was reckless and the continuing refusal to put in place a comprehensive system leaves us exposed to mutations coming from overseas,” he said.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock is due to be holding a cross-party briefing this morning to discuss the Brazilian variant cases.