Name: Boris Johnson accused of “failing to secure borders” from Brazilian Covid strain - BBC News
Uploaded: 2021-03-02T21:01:22.000Z
Duration: 6 min 6 s
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The prime minister has been defending England's border controls after it emerged that officials have been unable to find one of six people infected with a variant of coronavirus.

First found in Brazil are political register Laura Coons.

A new variant of coronavirus has landed on UK soil, with two cases near Bristle and three in Aberdeen.

Extra tests are being used to track any spread, but the urgent hunt is for 1/6 person with a positive test who can't be found.

Look at what we've done in the case of the South African variant, and a massive effort went in there, and the same is going on now to, uh, to contain any spread of the of the Brazilian variant.

It's caused concern not just because there was chaos in Manaus in Brazil, where it was first found, but the risk is that it spreads more easily and responds less well to the vaccine to the mystery patient.

Carrying the variant hasn't been traced because they didn't fill in their paperwork properly.

The variant was detected on the other side of the world in Japan in early January, on the 15th the government banned travel to the UK from Brazil and other South American countries, but British nationals were still allowed to fly back as long as they isolated at home for 10 days.

After weeks of discussions, the government then changed the policy, deciding on the 27th that Brits, coming home from countries at risk, would be quarantined in hotels as soon as they arrived.

But it wasn't until three weeks later, on the 15th of February, that passengers started having to stay in hotels rather than travel home after the six had developed the disease.

Government measures at the border have been too little, too late.

The government was warned about putting the hotel quarantining system into place as soon as possible.

Someone carrying the Brazilian variant was able to disappear weeks after the variant was first detected because the government hadn't yet got round to introducing quarantine hotels.

Do you believe that that delay will have put people at risk?

We had already quarantine in place and in fact we already put in place a ban on direct travel from Brazil.

Also, this positive test was on the 12th or 13th of February.

We think, uh, and that was obviously over two weeks ago, and we haven't seen any further knock on transmissions in the data.

This is more than just a political I told you so.

Moment for the opposition is a reminder of the threat from new forms of the virus that will continue to emerge.

And the government isn't willing to cut off the country from the rest of the world completely.

So it is a risk that will be straightforward to manage.

Last night, London's Heathrow looked as if they were struggling even to manage social distancing in long queues for the search for the patient.

With the variant continues, the dilemma is stopping the disease, coming in without stopping everything.

BBC News Westminster, The latest official figures, show there were 5455 new coronavirus infections recorded in the latest 24 hour period.

It means an average of 7980 new cases were recorded per day in the last week.

Across the UK, 14,808 people are in hospital with coronavirus in the last 24 hours, 104 deaths have been recorded that people who died within 28 days of a positive covid test on average, 314 deaths were announced every day in the past week, the lowest it's been since the beginning of November.

The total number of people who have now died is 122,953.

Almost 186,000 more people have had their first dose of the vaccine in the latest 24 hour period, so just over 20 million people have now had their first job.

That's more than 38% of the UK's adult population.

Well, our medical editor, Fergus Walsh, is with me now.

Some millions and millions of people have now been vaccinated, and the results are looking very promising.

The evidence on vaccines today is quite simply stunning.

They are way more effective than scientists would have dreamt of a year ago.

And what we can say pretty categorically tonight is whether you have the fighter jab or the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.

They both worked really well, offering strong protection against serious illness that's among the elderly, those most at risk who would normally expect to respond less well to vaccines.

You'll remember that several European countries decided to restrict their use and not give them to older adults.

The French health minister has partially reversed its country's decision, and now the Oxford AstraZeneca job will be available to people aged 65 to 74 in France.

Now this spectacular effectiveness here just comes after one dose.

That should boost effectiveness beyond 90% and make immunity last even longer.

And while there's still a lot of virus circulating, it's essential that people keep their guard up and maintain social distancing.

They are a potential worry, but clinical trials have updated.

Vaccines which will deal with these variants are planned for early summer, and they should be ready.

 Those new, updated vaccines by the autumn should we need them. 