Antigua denies having virus variant

Antigua and Barbuda's Prime Minister Gaston Browne has responded to the false information in media in the United Kingdom and the Caribbean, alleging that 'an Antigua variant' has been discovered in the UK by Public Health England.

Browne revealed that Ministry of Health officials talked with representatives of PHE who conceded that they were mistaken in posting on their website any reference to Antigua and Barbuda having a variant of the novel coronavirus. The Antigua and Barbuda government now expects PHE to retract its website posting.

The misinformation stems from PHE discovering a British family of five who had holidayed in Antigua and returned to the UK but they had not been positive.

Browne said: “More than 32 days have elapsed since the discovery and the negative results of contact tracing in the UK. Clearly, any variant of concern would have emerged by now.” He added that “daily tests conducted on material from Antigua by reputable external agencies have found no variant arising from Antigua”.