The highly-infectious Kent variant of Covid is suspected to be responsible for a cluster of new cases in the island.

Contact tracing continues as a cluster of Covid cases was detected, linked to a Steam Packet crew member testing positive last week.

A number of low-risk venues have been identified, among the latest being the Java Express coffee house and noodle bar last Tuesday lunchtime.

Yesterday, the contact testing team told people who visited or were working in Costa Coffee in Castletown between 10am and 11am last Thursday (February 18), to self-isolate and contact 111 immediately if they develop symptoms.

Ballakermeen High School and the no.31 bus to the school on the last day before half term were also named as a low risk.

Six more cases were detected yesterday (Monday), one a customer and Java Express and five close contacts, and taking the total number of active cases to 21.

Three of the active cases were travel-related and picked up during testing on day one, seven or 13 of self-isolation.

Public health director Dr Henrietta Ewart said on Friday that she was ’increasingly confident’ that there was one single cluster with distinct lines of transmission.

There was ’reason for cautious optimism’ given the time since the index case became infected, she said.

Dr Ewart said if there was wider transmission, including among Ballakermeen pupils, cases would have been expected to emerge by now.

The contact tracing team are ’following down and containing’ contacts, she said.

Dr Ewart said we would not get genomic sequencing back on the positive test results for about a week but said she suspected it would show all the cases would be of the Kent variant.

She admitted: ’I would actually suspect that it is going to be Kent variant and the reason for that is that is now the dominant strain across the UK.

’So that would be the default position. The other reason for suspecting that’s going to be the case is that we seem to be seeing a short interval between the exposure and onset of symptoms, shorter than we’ve seen before.

’That’s a bit anecdotal rather than strongly linked to published data.

’But colleagues have observed similar things elsewhere in the UK and the Channel Islands so that and the fact we know that the Kent variant is predominant now means we suspect that’s what we’ll see when we get the sequencing back.’

The Kent variant has already been detected in more than 50 countries and was first detected in September 2020 in south-east England.

It has substantially increased transmissibility compared to other variants.

Initial assessment by Public Health England reported no significant difference in the risk of hospitalisation or death but new analysis is reporting it could lead to increased disease.

Analysis has shown the first case of the Kent variant arrived in the island last year with a total of five cases detected by the beginning of this month.

A number of businesses closed last week as a precaution, over a possible risk of Covid transmission.

They included Elements of Beauty hairdressing salon in Onchan and Manx Gymnastics Centre of Excellence on Glencrutchery Road, Douglas.

The list of low-risk venues included the Java Express which had been visited by an individual who went on to test positive for the virus.

It then emerged that a second customer who was in the shop at the time had also gone on to develop symptoms.

This second customer is one of six new cases announced yesterday, the other five being close contacts.

They contacted 111 and were instructed to self-isolate along with other members of their household. The individual was offered a test which returned a positive result.

A small number of high risk locations were also identified but not named as part of a public appeal as ’everyone believed to have been affected had been traced’, said Chief Minister Howard Quayle.