BORIS Johnson is “concerned” about a THIRD new strain of Covid, which has been found in Brazil and Japan.
The PM admitted this afternoon he was worried about yet another new variant which is more easily transmitted but promised Britain’s border controls were enough to stop infections coming in from abroad.
Chair of the Health Select Committee, Jeremy Hunt, said today that experts on Nervetag were worried about a strain which had escaped from Brazil over to Japan – leading to flight bans and even tighter lockdowns.
Speaking to MPs this afternoon, the PM said: “Yes you’re absolutely right, we are concerned about the new Brazilian variant.
“We already have tough measures, as you know, to stop from new infections come from abroad.
“We are taking steps to do that in response to the Brazilian variation.”
The Prime Minister added that there were lots of questions “still unanswered” about the new variant.
He added: “We don’t know for instance, any more than we know whether the South African variant is vaccine resistant.”
Britain has banned direct flights from South Africa and a number of other nations to try and stop the even more contagious form of Covid from getting to the UK.
Like with the South African variant strain, scientists are not sure if it will still be affected by the vaccine.
Japanese health officials claimed the new variant of the virus discovered in their country has similarities to that of the highly-contagious strains in the UK and South Africa.
The new strain was detected on passengers who had got off a plane from Brazil at the beginning of January.
According to Nikkei Asia, the passengers landed at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Saturday, January 2.
Japan has reported the new strain to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and has seen a sharp rise in cases in recent weeks.
They have expanded their state of emergency to cover even more regions as the country records record numbers of infections.
It’s not yet known if this strain is present in the UK or not.
The South Africa strain is “more worrying” than a mutant strain discovered in the southeast of England because it is even more infectious.
That new strain, named 501.V2, was discovered just before Christmas.
It is not thought to be any deadlier than the current known strains of coronavirus.
But it is reckoned to be highly infectious and is behind a spiralling second wave in South Africa.
Just two cases have been reported in the UK so far.
