China confirmed its first case of a new variant of the coronavirus that was recently detected in Britain, health officials said.
The new strain, which experts say can spread faster than the original variant, has caused travel restrictions in the UK to more than 50 countries – including China, where the coronavirus first appeared last year.
The first patient in China with the new variant is a 23-year-old woman from Shanghai who arrived from Britain on December 14, the Chinese Center for Disease Control said in a research note published on Wednesday.
She was hospitalized on arrival because she had mild symptoms. Health experts carried out a genetic sequencing of their test samples on December 24 “due to the UK’s travel history and abnormalities in nucleic acid test results,” said the CDC of China.
The patient was found to have a different strain than those found in Shanghai or Wuhan previously, and further tests confirmed that it was the variant known as B.1.1.7 that has been spreading in the UK since October.
Health officials have tracked contacts, 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 said the new variant “could 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.
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