A POTENTIALLY dangerous new Indian variant of coronavirus has been found in Blackburn with Darwen borough.

Cases of the same strain have also been identified in Blackpool and an unidentified town in the Lancashire County Council area.

They are among three cases found in England as the government put India on the international travel ‘red list’.

This means that British nationals and those with UK residence rights must quarantine in a government-approved hotel on arrival and all other travellers are banned from entry.

Confirming the Blackburn with Darwen case, the borough’s public health director Professor Dominic Harrison welcomed India being added to the red list but said: “It is a little late.

“Some of the coronavirus horses had already bolted before the stable door was shut.

“I am glad India is now ‘red-listed’ as it has more cases than many other red-listed countries and this variant has been shown to be imported into the UK.

“The UK government does appear to be failing to effectively control importation of new variants and this puts the whole continued UK lockdown lifting at significant risk.”

The three cases were detected at the end of last week.

Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, public health director for Lancashire County Council, said: “We are aware of three cases of a new Covid variant first seen in India that have been discovered in Lancashire. The cases are currently under investigation.”

Professor Harrison said: “It is not yet clear whether the variant is more transmissible or has a higher case fatality rate but there is concern it may have an increased ‘vaccine escape capacity’.

“Blackburn with Darwen is using its own contact tracing team to follow up the case as the national system was unsuccessful. We are currently investigating what the percentage of our overall cases are imported from international travel. “The first week’s analysis identified that of the 98 cases received the week before last, 26 of them (27 per cent) relate to residents returning from foreign travel (mainly India and Pakistan).

“At the moment the Indian variant is a Variant Under Investigation (VUI) not a Variant of Concern (VOC).

“It would become a VOC, possibly requiring surge testing, if it was shown to be more transmissible than the circulating UK virus, likely to generate a higher mortality rate or likely to escape the current UK vaccination protections.

“Further work to establish this is currently underway.

“The relatively high percentage of cases from international travel imported into the borough is worrying.

“It does not bode well for the prospect of international travel-related Covid imports when and if international travel is de-restricted.”