Brazil variant
The Brazil Covid variant has now been detected in the UK and is causing growing concern.
This variant was first detected in Brazil in December and has seen a mass transfer of Covid-19 patients out of Manaus, the Amazon’s largest city, as it struggles with a shortage of oxygen tanks.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he is “very concerned” about a new variant of coronavirus which has been identified in Brazil.
He told the Liaison Committee this week the Government is “taking steps” to ensure the new strain is not imported into the UK.
He said: “Well we are and we’re putting in extra measures to ensure that people coming from Brazil are checked and indeed stopping people coming from Brazil.”
A ban on travel from South America to the UK came into force at 4am on Friday and is aimed at stopping the import of the new variant.
The Brazil variant is believed to be better at attaching to human cells, and therefore more infectious.
There are two coronavirus variants which have been first detected in Brazil according to leading scientists.
Professor Wendy Barclay said the version discovered is not the more infectious “variant of concern”.
The “variant of concern” from Brazil has been detected in travellers to Japan.
Professor Barclay added: “The new Brazilian variant of concern, that was picked up in travellers going to Japan, has not been detected in the UK.
“Other variants that may have originated from Brazil have been previously found.”
