* Eleven cases in England with no direct connection with S.
Africa
* Public Health England says 105 cases of new variant
detected
* Mass testing to start in eight areas to contain spread
(Adds comments from health secretary, Public Health England)
By Paul Sandle
LONDON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Eleven people in different regions
of England have tested positive for the South African
coronavirus variant without having any links to people who have
travelled, prompting mass testing in the areas to contain the
outbreak.
Britain, with the world's fifth-highest COVID-19 death toll,
has moved to tighten its borders out of concern that new
variants of the virus will undermine its vaccination drive.
To contain the new outbreaks, residents in eight areas of
the country will now be tested whether or not they are showing
symptoms, a process known as "surge testing".
There are about 10,000 people in each area. Three are in
London, two in the southeast, one in central England, one in the
east and another in the northwest.
Health minister Matt Hancock said those in the affected
areas needed to comply with the request to be tested, even if
they are asymptomatic, to break any chain of transmission.
"There's currently no evidence to suggest this variant is
any more severe," he said. "But we need to come down on it hard,
and we will."
Positive tests in the areas will be sequenced to identify
any further spread of the variant.
All viruses mutate, and scientists have identified several
variants of the coronavirus found to be more transmissible than
the original strain.
Their emergence has raised questions over whether vaccines
will still prove effective.
Public Health England said it has identified a total of 105
cases of the South African variant since Dec 22.
Scientists have said it appears to be more transmissible,
but there is no evidence that it causes more severe disease.
However, several laboratory studies have found that it reduces
vaccine and antibody therapy efficacy.
Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology
at the University of Reading, said there was emerging evidence
to suggest the variant was less susceptible to immunity induced
by the current crop of vaccines.
"The discovery of a handful of cases with no links to travel
to Africa indicates that it might be more widespread in the
community than previously thought," he said.
"This spread, even if small in scale, needs to be brought
under control quickly, so Public Health England's house-to-house
checks and intensive testing are the right thing to do."
Public Health England's Managing Director Susan Hopkins said
the cases did not appear linked.
"They're more likely to be related to somebody who
potentially had asymptomatic infection when they came in from
abroad," she said at a news conference.
Britain is battling a new wave of COVID-19 turbocharged by
the emergence in September of a more transmissable variant found
in the southeast of England. The country's official death toll
passed 100,000 last week.
Britain is, however, making rapid progress in its vaccination
programme, with nearly 9.3 million people having received the
first shot of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or
Oxford-AstraZeneca shot.
(Reporting by Kate Holton, Michael Holden and Paul Sandle
Editing by Estelle Shirbon, Timothy Heritage and David Goodman
)
Astrazeneca (AZN)