The new variant of Covid has made its way to the island, it was confirmed today.

Chief Minister Howard Quayle told a briefing this lunchtime the highly transmissible Kent strain of the virus was detected in a previous set of results that were sent away to the UK for analysis.

He confirmed it was not linked to the current clusters but was identified in a positive test result from a patient who had returned the island from a hospital appointment across.

But he said it was not believed that it had led to any wider transmission.

Mr Quayle said: ’As well as the two cases we identified yesterday evening, last night we also received confirmation that one of the tests we had sent away to Liverpool for genomic analysis, was confirmed to be the new UK strain of the virus, known as B117.

’The sample was not from the cluster we announced on New Year’s Eve, but instead from an earlier set of results that we sent away for genomic analysis.

’The strain was detected in a patient who returned to the island following a medical appointment in the UK last year.

’They self-isolated upon their return and, as a result, we do not believe there would have been any onward transmission.’

The B117 variant was announced by the UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on December 14 but the earliest signs of this variant goes back to the middle of September.

Mr Quayle said viruses constantly adapt and mutate.

He said he expected genomic results for the cases from New Year towards the middle of next week to find out if they involve the new variant.

’Regardless of this, we now know that the new strain has “visited” our island,’ he said. ‘We now know the new variant made its way to the Isle of Man but the measures we have in place and our response remain unchanged.’

He said the government’s objective was not suppression of Covid or mitigation but to ‘obliterate the virus from our shores’.

Dr Henrietta Ewart, director of public health, said the knowledge of which variant is here makes no difference to the government’s response to cases, clusters and outbreaks.

She said the variant has a transmissibility rate of 3.3 to 3.9 compared to old strain which sees one person infect three others.

But she said it does not appear to cause more serious disease or mortality rates and the vaccine is effective against it.