LONDON (Reuters) – Up to six cases of a highly transmissible variant of coronavirus first identified in the Brazilian city of Manaus have been detected in the UK for the first time, British health officials said on Sunday.
Three cases were found in England and another three in Scotland.
Two out of three cases found in England come from a household in the South Gloucestershire area that had a history of travel to Brazil. A third case, currently unrelated, has not yet been identified, Public Health England said.
The risk to the wider community of cases in Gloucestershire was considered low, but as a precaution, officials were moving quickly to conduct tests and increase the sequencing of positive coronavirus samples in the area, PHE said.
The Scottish cases were not related to those in England.
Variant P.1 detected in Manaus shares some mutations with a variant first identified in South Africa and is likely to respond less well to current vaccines, PHE said.
Susan Hopkins, PHE’s strategic response director for COVID-19, said the advanced gene sequencing capabilities in the UK mean it finds more variants and mutations than many other countries.
At the end of last year, the United Kingdom detected a more transmissible variant of the coronavirus that is believed to have appeared near London and which led to a sharp increase in cases in the country and beyond.
“It is important to note that COVID-19, regardless of its variant, spreads in the same way. That means measures to stop the spread don’t change, “Hopkins said.
PHE and the official test and tracking system tracked all passengers on the Swiss Air LX318 flight from Sao Paulo to London via Zurich, which landed at London Heathrow on February 10, to test their households as well.
All three Scottish cases were identified in people who returned to the country through Paris and London who self-isolated for the required period of 10 days.
“Due to potential concerns about this variant, other passengers on the flight used by the three individuals from London to Aberdeen are being contacted,” the Scottish government said.
Written by William Schomberg; Editing by Jane Merriman and Frances Kerry