Greece And Luxembourg Detect Cases Of New Coronavirus Variant

Greece And Luxembourg Detect Cases Of New Coronavirus Variant.

Greece has detected four cases of the new coronavirus variant in people who recently travelled from Britain, according to a Health Ministry official. The new variant of the coronavirus, now spreading around the world, was first found in Britain and is more transmissible than the original variant of the virus first identified in China a year ago. Another recent new variant was first found in South Africa.

“The four persons recently travelled to Greece from Britain. They are in quarantine,” a Health Ministry official who declined to be named said. It was the first time that Greece has reported cases of the new variant. Greece tightened coronavirus curbs for a week from Sunday, closing hair salons and bookstores that had been allowed to reopen in the run-up to Christmas, to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

The country, which started the first vaccinations against COVID-19 last week, has reported 140,099 confirmed coronavirus cases and 4,957 related deaths.

New variant detected in Luxembourg

Luxembourg’s Ministry of Health, together with the National Health Laboratory (LNS), has confirmed that a first case of the British coronavirus variant B.1.1.7 has been detected by the LNS during the sequencing of samples covering the period from 19 to 29 December.

An investigation into the origin of this case by the health inspectorate is underway. This variant of Sars-CoV2 originated in the United Kingdom at the end of 2020. It has since been named Voc 202012/01, Vui 202012/01 or lineage B.1.1.7.

According to studies presented in the UK, the new strain is more contagious than the original strain, it has an estimated increased transmissibility of up to 70%. These figures need to be confirmed though by further epidemiological and virological investigations.

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