Boris Johnson has denied hotel quarantine was brought in too slowly, as a nationwide search to track down a person infected with a coronavirus “variant of concern” that originated in Brazil gets under way.
The prime minister said scientific advisers “don’t think that there is a threat to the wider public” from the unidentified case and added a “massive effort” is going into preventing the variant spreading.
UK Covid live news: Boris Johnson insists discovery of Brazilian variant in UK won’t reverse lockdown easing
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Seeking to calm public nerves, Johnson insisted there was “no reason not to think that our vaccines are effective” against the variant and, when asked if the lifting of restrictions could have to be delayed, said: “I don’t think there’s any reason on this basis to change that now.”
Public Health England is working with the postal service to try to locate the unidentified person with the Brazilian variant, who is understood to have taken a home test or a test kit provided to them by their local authority, between 12-13 February but did not fill in their contact details.
Anyone who took a test on those two days but has not received a result is therefore being urged to contact the coronavirus test support line on 119.
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