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A Chinese student who returned home last month after studying in the UK has been confirmed to have had the new strain of coronavirus first detected in the UK.
The 18-year-old, who returned home to Guangzhou, the capital of southern China’s Guangdong Province, on December 4, is the second Chinese to contract variant B.1.1.7 after studying in Britain. Guangzhou Daily reported Sunday.
The discovery was made after the provincial center for disease control and prevention performed genetic sequencing tests on all the throat swab samples it had collected since September, according to the report.
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The man, who was not identified, produced a negative result when tested for coronavirus upon arrival at the Chinese border, but a subsequent test two weeks later, while in quarantine, came back positive.
As of Sunday, he was still being monitored at Guangzhou No.8 People’s Hospital, but was said to have only mild symptoms, according to the report, adding that health officials would continue to check the genetic sequencing of the samples.
According to scientists, the new variant of the coronavirus is between 40 and 70% more transmissible than the previous forms. Since its discovery on Dec. 8, it has been reported in more than 30 countries around the world, and more than 40 nations have banned all travelers from Britain as a precaution.
The first infection with the new variant in China was a 23-year-old woman who tested positive on December 14 upon her return to Shanghai after studying in Britain. The new strain was confirmed 10 days later.
According to the health bulletin China CDC Weekly, the new variant “represents a great potential threat to the prevention and control of Covid-19 in China.”
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However, Shanghai infectious disease expert Zhang Wenhong urged the public not to panic.
“There is nothing special about the case,” he said. “The patient’s symptoms were so mild that they didn’t even need my attention.”
China has largely controlled the coronavirus outbreak within its borders, but reported 24 new cases, 16 of them imported, on the same day the second new case variant was confirmed.
The eight local cases were registered in the north of the country, four in Heilongjiang province, two in Liaoning, one in Beijing and one in Hebei.
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