Brazilian variant of Covid-19 prompts new travel ban
All UK-bound arrivals from South America and Portugal will be banned from Friday 04:00 GMT over the Brazilian coronavirus variant although British and Irish citizens and foreign nationals with residence rights will still be able to travel but must isolate for 10 days according to Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary. The ban applies to people who have travelled from or through Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Portugal, and Venezuela in the last 10 days.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “very concerned” about the Brazilian variant of the virus.
Felipe Naveca, Deputy director of research at the Brazilian state-run Oswaldo Cruz Foundation said the new variant was “of concern” and its origin was “undoubtedly” from the Amazon region.
London continues to have the highest rate of any region but its rate of new cases stood at 864.9 per 100, 000 people in the seven days to 10th January down from 1, 043.9 in the previous week.
The Brazilian variant has three key mutations in the spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) that largely mirror some of the mutations experts are worried about in the South African variant. The coronavirus RBD is one of the main targets of our immune defenses and also the region targeted by vaccines. Experts detected the new Brazilian variant circulating in December in Manaus, Amazon, North Brazil. The Brazilian one carries a mutation in the spike protein called E484K, which is not present in the UK strain. The E484K mutation has been shown to reduce antibody recognition, helping the virus to bypass immune protection provided by prior infection or vaccination.
The Brazilian variant was also detected in Japan.