Health Secretary provides an update on the north-east Brazilian variant cases
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Following the announcement yesterday of the first known cases of the Brazillian variant of Covid-19 in Scotland which were identified in the north-east. the Health Secretary Jeane Freeman provided an update during the daily ministers briefing.
She said: "The variant identified yesterday is sometimes known as the Brazilian variant of concern, or P1 - because it is associated with the resurgence of cases that has been seen in Brazil.
"We know that current vaccines are effective against the strains of the virus that have already been established in the UK.
"However more work is required to determine that this remains the case for emerging strains of the virus, such as the one we’re highlighting today from Brazil.
"That’s why so much effort is going into stopping it spreading further while the work is underway with respect to the vaccine.
"The three individuals concerned had travelled from Brazil to Scotland via Paris and London.
"They self-isolated on their arrival in Scotland, and when they tested positive for Covid, they all stayed in isolation for a further 10 days.
"Because they had arrived from Brazil, a designated high risk country, their test results were selected for genomic sequencing.
"That is why we have now been able to confirm that they had the P1 variant."
She continued: "As a precautionary measure, Test and Protect teams are now identifying all possible contacts of these cases - and the contacts of those contacts - so that they can take tests.
"We are also contacting other passengers who were on the flight the individuals took from Heathrow to Aberdeen.
"That is flight BA1312, which departed from Heathrow on the afternoon of Friday the 29th of January.
"If you were on that flight, and have not yet been contacted – you will be contacted shortly so please wait for that.
"I want to stress that there is currently no reason to believe that the P1 variant of the virus is in circulation in Scotland.
"However I hope this summary reassures you that we are doing everything we can and everything that is necessary - to check whether this variant of the virus could have been transmitted within Scotland, and to identify and break any possible chains of transmission.
"These three cases remind us once again how careful we need to be in guarding against new variants.
"That is why the Scottish Government has put in place such strong travel restrictions.
"And it is why as we all work to reduce case numbers it is important to avoid large groups, not only to reduce transmission, but to reduce the opportunity the virus has to mutate."
