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Brazil variant already in UK, confirms top scientist

Brazil variant already in UK, confirms top scientist

Coronavirus in UK

A top UK scientist has confirmed that one of the novel coronavirus variants found in Brazil is already in Britain.

Prof Wendy Barclay, who is heading up the G2P-UK National Virology Consortium, a newly launched project to study the effects of emerging Covid-19 mutations, said one of the two Brazilian variants had been found in the UK.

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"There are two different types of Brazilian variants and one of them has been detected and one of them has not," Barclay was quoted as saying by the BBC.

She also said that the strain will be "traced very carefully".

The revelations come after Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said this morning that he was "not aware" of the presence of the Brazilian variant in the kingdom.

"Not as far as we are aware, I think, at this stage," Shapps told BBC Radio 4's Today 4.

The variant found in Brazil is different from the ones detected in the UK and South Africa but has some key mutations.

The UK on Friday banned travellers from South America for entering as a precautionary measure to curb the transmission of the variant.

In recent times, deadlier Covid-19 variants have been found in countries like the UK, Brazil and Brazil and have raised concerns worldwide.

The variant found in the UK has led to a huge surge in transmission, prompting several countries to initially halt the travel from Britain.

The strains in South Africa, Brazil and Japan have triggered alarms over their potential impact on immunity.