Up to six cases of the CCP virus variant first identified in the Brazilian city of Manaus have been detected in the UK, Public Health England (PHE) said on Sunday.
Three cases were found in England. Three other cases were identified in Scotland, which were not linked to cases in England.
UK health authorities are following up with all passengers on Swiss Air flight LX318 travelling from Sao Paulo via Zurich and landing in London Heathrow on Feb. 10 to test them and their households.
PHE said the risk to the wider community is low, but surge asymptomatic testing has been deployed in South Gloucestershire to identify and contain possible community spread.
Authorities are still trying to track down the third infected individual, whose follow-up details are not available because they did not complete their test registration card.
The three cases in Scotland also recently travelled back from Brazil.
The Scottish authorities are contacting other passengers on the flight used by the three individuals from London to Aberdeen.
“These include E484K, which is predicted to make existing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 less effective, as well as N501Y, which is potentially linked to increase transmissibility,” he said.
“It is likely that the P.1 variant is driving the current surge in infected cases due to re-infection as a consequence of both waning antibody responses and the P.1 variant’s ability to evade antibodies induced from previous infection with a different variant,” he said.