Coronavirus: One of two Brazil variants is already in UK, expert says

One of two coronavirus variants that first emerged in Brazil has been identified in the UK, according to a leading virologist – but not the highly contagious form of the virus that has gripped the South American country.

Professor Wendy Barclay, head of G2P-UK National Virology Consortium, a new project set up to study the effects of emerging coronavirus mutations, said the Brazilian variant of concern was not in circulation within Britain.

Called P1, the variant was first identified in four people who had travelled from Brazil’s Amazonas state to Tokyo earlier this month. 

Japanese scientists are studying the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccines against P1, which shares similarities with the highly infectious variants that have already been identified in the UK and South Africa.

“The new Brazilian variant of concern, that was picked up in travellers going to Japan, has not been detected in the UK,” Prof Barclay said. “Other variants that may have originated from Brazil have been previously found.”

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said he was “not aware” if any cases of P1 had been picked up, as new restrictions were enforced on Friday preventing South American travellers from entering the UK.

But Prof Barclay said the older Brazilian variant may have been “introduced [to Britain] some time ago”.

“And that will be being traced very carefully,” she added.

Separately, scientists believe that P1 has been circulating in Brazil’s Amazonas state since July of last year, before being detected in Japan this month. 

The variant, which is thought to be highly transmissible, 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.

Nearly 6,000 people have died from Covid across the state, where the second wave of the pandemic has hit hard.

The older variant of Sars-CoV-2 is “more prevalent” in other parts of Brazil, Prof Barclay said on Friday.

Research from G2P-UK and other groups suggests the two Brazil variants “might impact the way that some people’s antibodies can see the virus”, she added, so there may be a risk of reinfection which would have “big implications”.

“It is really important that we carry out this work now, and carry it out carefully, and in several different laboratories, to really firm up those results because they have big implications,” Prof Barclay said.

Earlier, Mr Shapps described the ban, which includes an exemption for British and Irish nationals, as a “precautionary” measure to ensure the vaccination programme rolling out across the UK was not disrupted by new variants of the virus.

Asked if P1 was currently in the country, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Not as far as we are aware, I think, at this stage.

“There haven’t been any flights that I can see from the last week from Brazil, for example.”