(ANSA) - LONDON, 01 MAR - The so-called English variant of Covid has been brought back under control (minus 40% of new infections in the last week thanks to the third national lockdown and to the over 20 million people vaccinated on the island at least with the first dose), the United United raises its guard against a new threat: that of the 'Brazilian variant', which is feared to be even more aggressive and against whose spread the effectiveness of the vaccines currently available is less certain.
The cases traced in the last few hours are in fact only 6 at national level (3 identified in England, others 3 - separately - in Scotland), but the British health and self-governing authorities have raised the alarm by defining the appearance of this mutation as "worrying".
Matt Hancock, Boris Johnson's Minister of Health, has called a parliamentary meeting for an immediate update, while doctors and scientists are on the hunt for the origin of these mini-outbreaks and further infections.
One of the six cases is of particular concern, attributable to a traveler returning to the Kingdom who would have escaped the tightening on the borders recently imposed by hiding the country of origin in the mandatory form and thus avoiding the forty-year surveillance in the hotel: binding caution from 15 February for anyone arriving on the island from a red list of 33 countries most at risk of importation of the Brazilian or South African variants.
An obligation that the Labor opposition is asking the Tory government to extend to those traveling from any state in the world.
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