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SHANGHAI (AFP) – 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 spreads potentially faster than the original variant, has prompted UK travel restrictions in more than 50 countries, including China, where the coronavirus appeared late 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 (December 30).
She was hospitalized upon arrival for mild symptoms. Health experts carried out genetic sequencing of their test samples on December 24 “due to the history of travel from the UK and abnormal nucleic acid test results,” the China CDC said.
The patient was found to have a different strain than previously found in Shanghai or Wuhan, and further tests confirmed it was the variant known as B117 that has been spreading in the UK since October.
Health authorities have conducted contact tracing, the CDC statement added.
China suspended direct flights to and from Britain indefinitely on December 24 due to the new tension.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that the new variant “may be up to 70% more transmissible than the original version of the disease.”
But so far there is no evidence 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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