AUSTRALIA, ITALY ALSO DETECT NEW STRAIN
France has also reported that there is a possibility the new strain is spreading in the country
SYDNEY/ROME: Australia confirmed on Monday that it has detected two cases of a fastspreading new coronavirus strain that has forced Britain to reverse plans to ease curbs over Christmas, the first confirmed cases of the strain in the AsiaPacific region.
Italy is another such country where the new strain of the virus discovered in the UK has been found.
France on Monday also reported there is a possibility that the new strain is spreading in the country.
SYDNEY/ROME: Australia confirmed on Monday that it has detected two cases of a fastspreading new coronavirus strain that has forced Britain to reverse plans to ease curbs over Christmas, the first confirmed cases of the strain in the AsiaPacific region.
Australia’s most populous state on Sunday reported six new cases of the coronavirus in people returning from overseas and in quarantine, and authorities said among them were two cases of the fast-spreading new strain. However, New South Wales officials stressed that no people infected with the new strain were believed to be circulating in the community.
Italy is another such country where the new strain of the virus discovered in the UK has been found. Italy on Sunday reported that it has found the new strain in a person who has recently returned from the UK.
France on Monday also reported there is a possibility that the new strain is also spreading in the country. “It is entirely possible that the virus is circulating in France,” French health minister Olivier Veran was quoted as saying by Reuters. However, the recent tests have not detected the mutant yet.
Several European nations have begun to distance themselves from the UK after the news of the new Covid-19 virus strain trickled in. Many have imposed travel bans to tackle the crisis.
Researchers in Sweden had found a new mutation in the virus as early as April. They observed two changes in the genetic material of the virus that seemed to make it two times more powerful in transmission, AP cited Dr Ravi Gupta, a virologist at the University of Cambridge in England, as saying. Gupta said that around 6,000 cases of the new virus worldwide were reported, mostly in Denmark and England.
Many more variations in the genome have been discovered since then, it was also reported that people in Denmark got the new strain from mink farms.
News about the new strain that is driving the second wave in South Africa has also been reported. South African health officials believed that the newly found strain of the coronavirus seems to spread faster, but the severity of the disease due to the mutations are still unknown.