UK detects 77 cases of South African variant of COVID, nine Brazilian cases

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has detected 77 cases of the South African variant of COVID-19, the health minister said on Sunday, also urging people to strictly follow lockdown rules as the best precaution against the variant potentially Britain’s deadliest.

Matt Hancock said the 77 cases were linked to travel from South Africa and were under close surveillance, as were nine identified cases of a Brazilian variant.

“They are under very close observation, and we have improved contact tracing to do everything possible to prevent them from spreading,” he said in a BBC television interview.

Oxford professor Anthony Harnden, vice chairman of a scientific committee on vaccination that advises the government, said the South African and Brazilian variants were of concern because the COVID-19 vaccines might not be effective against them.

“The new variants abroad are a real concern. For South Africa and the Brazilian Amazon, there are indications that there will be a vaccine leak, ”he told Sky News, adding that new variants would continue to appear around the world. whole.

Britain has the highest death toll from COVID-19 in Europe, at nearly 100,000, and was stranded for most of January as hospitals struggled to cope with record numbers of patients with the disease seriously ill COVID.

The government attributed the high transmission rates that led it to impose the lockdown in part to a highly contagious variant first identified in the south-east of England and now widespread in many areas.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that the English variant could be associated with a higher level of mortality, although scientists said the evidence for it remained uncertain, a message Hancock reiterated on Sunday.

“Scientists think it could be deadlier, and they’ve come up with various estimates that from about 10% deadlier to a little more than that, we’re not exactly sure how much deadlier,” he said. he said on Sky News.

“In a way for all of us it doesn’t matter, what matters is that we have to get this virus under control and the only way to do that is to stop social contact and follow through the rules, ”he said.