Ukvariant continues global spread

The highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus first detected in England had by yesterday been documented in several European countries, as well as Canada, Japan, Australia and Lebanon, despite efforts to curb its spread through massive global disruptions in travel and movement.

Fears over the fast-spreading form of the virus that causes Covid-19 come in sharp contrast to a wave of hope sweeping some countries and communities as vaccination programmes begin to be rolled out. Scientists do not think the British variant is more deadly or resistant to the current coronavirus vaccines.

The variant has also been detected in France, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy.

In Canada, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer announced Saturday that they had confirmed two cases, the first detection of the variant in North America. The patients, a couple, had no known travel history, meaning it was likely a case of community spread.

While the United States has not yet reported a case, experts say it is probably because of the nation’s very low rate of genetic sequencing of the virus to check for such changes, despite Americans leading the world in coronavirus infections and deaths.

Beginning this week, the US government will require all travellers flying in from Britain to show proof of a negative coronavirus test taken within 72 hours of the plane’s departure. Japan has temporarily banned all foreign nationals except those with residency from entering the country starting today through the end of January. Japan reported its first case of the British variant on Friday amid a new surge of coronavirus cases in Tokyo. Japan said five patients detected with the variant had all travelled from the United Kingdom, from which Japan had curbed travel last week.

Countries across Europe and other continents began to block or restrict travellers from the UK last week in reaction to the variant’s outbreak.

Scientists, however, are additionally closely following news of another variant of the novel coronavirus first detected in South Africa that experts say also appears to be highly transmissible. British health officials have already documented cases of the South African variant in the United Kingdom. – Washington Post

The patients, a couple, had no known travel history, meaning it was likely a case of community spread.