Spain confirms first cases of new COVID strain after passengers from UK test positive

Four people in Madrid have been infected with the new variant of Coronavirus, which researchers say is more infectious, a regional government official confirmed on December 26. Speaking at a news conference, Madrid government’s deputy health chief Antonio Zapatero confirmed that all the four cases involved people who had recently arrived from Britain, where it was first detected. Although several nations across Europe including Spain have put a ban on travel to and from the UK, the virus is still spreading at accelerating rate.

Meanwhile, Zapatero asserted that none of the patients were seriously ill. Elaborating further, he said that although the strain was more transmissible, it did cause increased harm to the patients. “There is no need for an alarm,” he said as cases in the country spiked to 1,869,610 with 49,824 fatalities. 

Suspected cases

Adding to the confirmed five, the authorities said that there were three other suspected cases of the new strain, however, the test results for the same won’t be available before December 30 or 31st. These new cases come even as Madrid had effectively banned all entries to the city apart from Spanish nationals and residents starting December 22. 

Read: New COVID-19 Strain: Everything About The New Variant Of Coronavirus Spreading Rapidly

Read: Spain Takes Receipt Of First Batch Of Vaccines

About the new virus strain

The new variant of the novel coronavirus has been flagged for spreading rapidly across the UK. Even though it is a well-known fact that viruses mutate all the time and some of them even die out, it is a very rare occasion when the new strains trigger dramatic changes. However, with over 1,000 cases of the variant discovered in the UK, scientists are puzzled to determine if the variant, reportedly named as VUI-202012/01 falls into which category or if it represents an increased health risk especially when some nations began administering the COVID-19 vaccines among people. 

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Image: AP