Name: Brazilian Covid strain found in UK raising fears over vaccine protection - BBC News
Uploaded: 2021-03-01T18:35:56.000Z
Duration: 3 min 50 s
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six cases of the new Brazilian variant of coronavirus has been detected in the UK for the first time, three in England and three in Scotland.

Five of the cases have been linked to travel from Brazil.

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Public Health England said the risks of the wider community is considered low, but it will increase testing in the south Gloucestershire area where two of the cases were found.

There are concerns that the Brazilian variant maybe more contagious than the original virus and less likely to respond to vaccines, although these can be adapted, it comes as the UK reached the milestone of more than 20 million people receiving their first coronavirus jab, Health correspondent Catherine Burns reports.

Next week, restrictions in England will start to ease.

Very gradually, society should start to open up, but at each step along the way, the government will check four tests before they move on.

One is to make sure that no new variants are shifting the odds in the viruses favor.

But today confirmation of six people testing positive for a new concerning variant first found in Brazil it can spread more quickly than the original version.

There are worries about people getting reinfected.

And then there's the question of how it could affect vaccines.

We have no clinical data or clinical trials data related to vaccine efficacy for this p one variant.

However, the mutations that are present in this variant are highlighting some concern for us.

So we definitely are trying to contain the spread so that it does not have an impact on our vaccine program.

Surge testing will start tomorrow in parts of South Gloucestershire.

Two cases are confirmed there and linked back to travel to Brazil.

Another three people have tested positive in northeast Scotland.

We're going to contact the passengers just as fast as we can.

They haven't had symptoms, so some of them may have had randomly or connected.

We're gonna check if any have had tests and we'll do genetics on those tests.

Authorities are also trying to identify 1/6 case.

Someone who took a test on February 12th or 13th did not register it properly.

This isn't the first variant of concern we've had to deal with, and in fact this one is pretty similar to the one first found in South Africa.

now surge testing for that did pick up a small number of cases, but less than 0.

00.2% of all the people they tested had that variant.

And in fact, since they first started looking for the South Africa variant, they've only found 250 cases of it across the UK All this makes the vaccine rollout ever more important, and today a new milestone.

More than 20 million people have now had their first dose.

The first steps back to normality will be taken in schools, and testing will be a key part of the fight to stay on top of the virus as pupils head back, including Naomi George's five year old daughter.

Like all adults living with a pupil in England, Naomi will be encouraged to test herself at home a couple of times a week.

It's one line, so one line means I'm very unlikely to have covid.

I mean, it's not hustle free and you know, going to pick them up from the testing center.

The news about the Brazilian variant will hopefully be just a small obstacle in our race against the virus.

Scientists think the current vaccines will still protect against other variants, although maybe not quite as well.

But they're not wasting any time and are already working to tweak vaccines.

 New versions could be ready in a few months. 