Britain confirms 6 cases of mutated new coronavirus first discovered in Brazil
Xinhua News Agency, London, February 28 (Reporter Zhang Jiawei Jin Jing) The Public Health Agency of England issued a message on the 28th that the UK has confirmed a total of 6 cases of mutated new coronavirus infections first discovered in Brazil.
The Public Health Agency of England stated that this mutant new coronavirus named "P.1" was first discovered in Manaus, Brazil, and the agency has listed it as a “new coronavirus of concern”.
Currently, 3 related cases have been confirmed in England and Scotland respectively.
Two of the confirmed cases in England are from the same family and have travel history to Brazil. The details of the other case are still under investigation.
According to the Scottish government, the three confirmed cases in Scotland have a history of travel to Brazil, but there is no correlation with the confirmed cases in England.
The Public Health Agency of England stated that the "P.1" mutant new coronavirus has some of the same characteristics as the "B.1.351" mutant virus first discovered in South Africa, such as mutations called "E484K" and "N501Y".
The immune effect of existing vaccines against the "P.1" mutant virus needs further study.
Susan Hopkins, director of the new crown response strategy at the Public Health Agency of England, said that no matter how the new crown virus mutates, its transmission method is the same, "this means that the measures to prevent infection have not changed."
People should stay at home as much as possible, wear masks, wash hands frequently and maintain social distancing when going out.
Data released by the British government on the 28th showed that the country had 6,035 new confirmed cases of new crown that day, and a total of 4,176,554 confirmed cases; 144 new deaths and a total of 122,849 deaths.