Coronavirus in Scotland: 34 passengers on flight to Aberdeen with trio who tested positive for Brazil variant still to be traced

Jeane Freeman has said 34 passengers who flew to Scotland with three travellers later found to have the Brazil variant of Covid-19 have still to be traced.

Speaking at the coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh on Wednesday, the Health Secretary revealed there were 249 close contacts, with 90 on a flight from Heathrow to Aberdeen, and 56 of those have been contacted successfully.

However, she said 34 remain unaccounted and made a plea to anyone on the flight to come forward.

Ms Freeman said: “From the index cases, there have been 249 close contacts contacted. All those contacts have been made and completed.

“There were a total of 90 on the particular flight that came from Heathrow to Aberdeen that the individuals were on. Three of those were flight crew.

“So far 56 individuals have been contacted. And we are still looking for the remaining number.

“Part of the difficulty is where the data we have been given is incomplete and so it's harder to track those individuals down.

“So what we are now asking is if you were on that flight on the 29th of January – that is BA1312 – then we're asking, if you've not been contacted, to call the national contact tracing centre on 0800 030 8012.

Jeane Freeman said 34 people remain unaccounted for after travelling on the same flight as three people who tested positive for the Brazilian Covid strain.

“We will continue to try to identify those remaining individuals from the flight but if you are one of those individuals and have not been contacted please call the number and let our contact tracing team do their job.”

Chief Medical Officer Dr Gregor Smith said that he is “confident” there has been no community transmission and thanked the three people for isolating in their homes.

He added there is “nothing to suggest” there has been any escape of the Brazil variant into the local community.

Meanwhile, Scotland has recorded 35 deaths from coronavirus and 543 positive tests in the past 24 hours, Scottish Government figures show.

It brings the death toll under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 7,371.

A total of 1,661,879 people have received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine as of Wednesday morning and 8,105 have received their second dose.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.