Covid: Boris Johnson insists UK has 'very tough' border controls despite emergence of Brazil variant

ITV News Political Correspondent Shehab Khan has more

Boris Johnson has insisted the UK has "one of the toughest border regimes anywhere in the world", despite several cases of a Brazilian coronavirus variant "of concern" being detected.

The prime minister said there's no evidence to suggest the new variant is resistant to vaccines, as he defended border controls that failed to contain the spread of the variant.

Public Health England (PHE) has identified six UK cases of the concerning P1 variant first detected in the Brazilian city of Manaus - three in England and three in Scotland.

Mr Johnson claimed the government "moved as fast as we could" to launch its mandatory hotel quarantine policy - which was implemented around a month after concerns about variants from South America and southern Africa were raised.

The government announced on January 27 that it would soon be implementing a the hotel quarantine policy to block the import of variants of concern, but the new rule did not come into force until February 15.

Critics have attacked the government for being slow to implement mandatory hotel quarantine for arrivals to the UK, with the long-awaited policy being brought in just five days before someone arrived while infected with the variant.

Mr Johnson told reporters: "We have got one of the toughest border regimes anywhere in the world for stopping people coming in to this country who may have variants of concern."

Asked if the government was too slow to implement quarantine hotel measures, the Prime Minister replied: "I don't think so - we moved as fast as we could to get that going.

"It's a very tough regime - you come here, you immediately get transported to a hotel where you are kept for 10 days, 11 days.

"You have to test on day two, you have to test on day eight, and it's designed to stop the spread of new variants while we continue to roll out the vaccination programme."

There have been more than 4 million cases of Covid since the beginning of the pandemic. Credit: PA

A number of experts have expressed concerns about the emergence of the new variant, with a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies saying the new strain could force the UK to "go backwards" in terms of relaxing restrictions.

Prime Minister Johnson sought to reassure the public about the new strain, saying there is no evidence to suggest it is resistant to vaccines.

"We don't have any reason at the present time to think that our vaccines are ineffective against these new variants of all types," he said.And he said he still expects the roadmap for easing England's restrictions to be irreversible.

"What we are doing is embarking now on a journey, a one-way road map to freedom and it is designedly cautious in order to be irreversible.

"That is what we are hoping to achieve. Some people say we should go faster, some people say we should be more hesitant.

"I think we are going at the right pace, education is the priority, getting all schools open on March 8 is something that we have set our hearts on for a long time and I am confident we will be ready."

On Monday it was revealed 20,275,451 people have had a Covid-19 vaccination, with 815,816 of those having had a second dose.

Questions have also been raised as to how the variant was allowed to escape into the community without the carrier being told to self-isolate.

The explanation given is that the person did not complete their test registration card so their contact details are absent, according to Public Health England.

Anyone who took a test on February 12 or 13 and has not received a result, or has an uncompleted test registration card, is being asked to come forward immediately, as health officials scramble to track down the individual.

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Surge testing will be carried out in the Bradley Stoke, Patchway and Little Stoke areas of South Gloucestershire.

Two cases of the variant were found in South Gloucestershire and three others in north east Scotland - all of these have been instructed to self-isolate.

The PM said a "massive effort" was under way to prevent new coronavirus variants spreading.

He told reporters: "If you look at what we have done in the case of the South African variant, a massive effort went in there.

"The same is going on now to contain any spread of the Brazilian variant."

There was "no reason not to think that our vaccines are effective against these variants of concern at the present time" and Public Health England "don't think that there is a threat to the wider public".

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