Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Three individuals who tested positive for the Brazilian strain of Covid isolated together in Aberdeen

Three individuals have tested positive for the Brazilian strain of Covid.
Three individuals have tested positive for the Brazilian strain of Covid.

The three individuals who flew into Aberdeen and tested positive for the Brazilian variant of Covid went straight into quarantine together on their arrival into the north-east.

NHS head of intelligence Jillian Evans confirmed that their employer had set up the quarantine.

Speaking on Good Morning Scotland, Ms Evans also revealed that health protection officials are now following up contacts of their contacts which is “not standard procedure.”

Professor Jillian Evans.

She said: “We are going one stage further but if they had been in managed quarantine for 10 days, you would think that they wouldn’t have many contacts to follow up but this is an added precaution being taken by health protection specialists.

“It’s not something we normally do but I do want to raise assurances that the health protection is very much trying to reassure people in Grampian that this has not spread any further and they are monitoring it very closely.”

The new variant was identified on February 27 in the three individuals, with heightened contact tracing kicking off from then.

They had flown back to Brazil via Paris and Heathrow, with health officials aiming to trace all passengers on those flights.

flights
The individuals flew into Aberdeen International Airport

Ms Evans added: “Work is ongoing to trace of all those on the same flights and none of the cases at the time were symptomatic so that’s good news.

“This is an extra precaution to trace people who were on the same flight and that is certainly being done nationally, not something we are doing locally.

“For most people in the local area, they will be completely unaffected by this, but it points to the need for really good border restrictions and the process of isolation to come in really quickly.”

Three cases of the Brazilian variant have also been identified in three individuals in England.

The Brazilian strain could evade existing vaccines

Two of them came from a household in South Gloucestershire, where one person returned from Brazil in mid-February.

Health officials in England are hunting for the third individual who did not complete their test registration card.

The Brazilian strain was first found in Manaus and is thought to spread more rapidly and be more capable of evading existing vaccines.

National clinical director Jason Leitch revealed some of the concerns the scientists had about this strain.

Nation clinical director Jason Leitch.

He said: “We are not absolutely certain that this version is amenable to the natural immunity some people have and the artificial immunity we are creating with vaccinations.

“Everything we know says the vaccines are very effective but we just can’t be sure yet because it’s not been around long enough and the trials haven’t completed.

“It may be that the vaccine is just as effective against this strain but we just don’t know that to be true, so that is why we are being so cautious.”