• Virulent U.K. variant of virus spreading despite containment efforts.

The highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus first detected in England had by Saturday 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 fastspreading form of the virus that causes COVID19 come in sharp contrast to a wave of hope sweeping some countries and communities as vaccination programs 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 the region 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 U.S. has not yet reported a case, experts say it is probably due to 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 Monday, the U.S. government will require all travelers flying in from Britain to show proof of a negative coronavirus test taken within 72 hours of the plane’s departure. Early in the pandemic, the U.S. banned travelers from China and the European Union, among others, though by that point the novel coronavirus had already been widely spreading undetected due to limited American testing.

Japan on Saturday temporarily banned all foreign nationals, except those with residency, from entering the country starting Dec. 28 through the end of January. Japan reported its first case of the British variant Friday amid a new surge of coronavirus cases in the capital, Tokyo. Japan said five patients detected with the variant had all traveled from the U.K., from which Japan had curbed travel last week.