SHANGHAI – China has confirmed its first case of a new coronavirus variant that was recently detected in Britain, said health officials.
The new strain, which experts say potentially spreads faster than the original variant, has prompted travel restrictions on the United Kingdom by more than 50 countries – including China, where Covid-19 first emerged late last year.
The first patient in China with the new variant is a 23-year-old woman from here who arrived from Britain on December 14, said the Chinese Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in a research note published yesterday.
She was hospitalised on arrival as she showed mild symptoms.
Health experts conducted a genetic sequencing of her test samples on December 24 “due to travel history from the UK and abnormalities in nucleic acid test results”, said CDC.
The patient was found to have a strain different to those found here or in Wuhan earlier, and further testing confirmed it is the variant known as B.1.1.7 that has been spreading in the UK since October.
Health authorities have carried out contact tracing, added the CDC statement.
China suspended direct flights to and from Britain indefinitely on December 24 because of the new strain.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the new variant “may be up to 70% more transmissible than the original version of the disease”.
But, there is no evidence so far to suggest that infection with the new variant is more likely to lead to a severe case of Covid-19 or increase the risk of death. – AFP, December 31, 2020
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