London, March 1 (PTI) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday said that a "massive effort" was underway to track the spread of a new Brazilian variant of COVID-19 detected in the country, as health officials issued an appeal for an unidentified person who had tested positive for it to come forward.

The missing person infected with the highly-transmissible variant is understood to have used a home testing kit, but did not complete the registration form properly.

It has prompted an appeal for anyone without a result from a coronavirus test on February 12 or 13 to come forward immediately by calling on helpline: 119.

"We have got one of the toughest border regimes anywhere in the world for stopping people coming into this country who may have variants of concern," said Johnson.

The latest development has triggered some concern as it is feared that vaccines may not be as effective against the Brazilian variant, but NHS England's Professor Stephen Powis said vaccines could be "rapidly adapted".

“There is no reason not to think that our vaccines are effective against these variants of concern at the present time," stressed Boris Johnson.

According to Public Health England (PHE), three cases of the so-called P.1 coronavirus variant, first detected in the Brazlian city of Manaus, have been confirmed in England and three in Scotland.

Two of the cases in England come from a household in South Gloucestershire, where one person returned from Brazil in mid-February, before hotel quarantine measures were introduced.

Other people in the same household have also tested positive for COVID-19, but are not currently judged to have the Brazil variant while tests on their type of coronavirus continue.

But South Gloucestershire has begun increased testing – including asymptomatic testing – and enhanced contact-tracing has been introduced in the local area.

The third case in England is unlinked and the whereabouts of the individual remain unknown, as they did not complete their test registration card, triggering a hunt for the unidentified person.

UK Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said it was not known whether or not the unidentified person had recently been abroad, so it was not clear if they would have been self-isolating while they were infected.

Meanwhile, the three Scottish cases were found in asymptomatic passengers who flew into Aberdeen and tested positive while self-isolating and contact tracing of other passengers on the flight is currently ongoing.

The Scottish government has stressed there was "no reason to believe" the P.1 variant is in circulation in Scotland.

Brazil is on the red list of 33 countries, which means anyone travelling to England from that region from February 15 must pay to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days, while in Scotland the rule applies to international travellers from all countries.

Even before that date, travellers arriving into the UK still needed to self-isolate in their homes for 10 days.

Opposition Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, said the latest cases reflect that the government had still not "secured our borders in the way we should have done".

"It demonstrates the slowness of the government to close off even the major routes, but also the unwillingness to confront the fact that the virus doesn't travel by direct flights," he said.

Meanwhile, Labour's shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, has written to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel with a series of questions over the government's border measures.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)