By Rjay Zuriaga Castor
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| People wearing face masks (PHOTO: Daily Sun) |
SHANGHAI – The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) confirmed Wednesday the first imported case of the new
coronavirus variant that originally began circulating in the United Kingdom
Researchers at the CDC said in a weekly report that the new
variant of the coronavirus was detected in a 23-year-old woman from Shanghai
who arrived from Britain on December 14.
The patient was taken to a quarantine facility immediately
after she stepped off the plane, a measure China has imposed on all inbound
international passengers regardless of their COVID-19 status during the
pandemic.
The woman, diagnosed as a mild case as of Wednesday, has not
been out and about in the city, according to the report.
On Dec. 24, laboratory work confirmed that the coronavirus
strain contracted by the student was the new variant, known as B.1.1.7.
The patient in China tested negative for the virus two days
before her departure from the U.K, the report said. She told health officials
she was unsure how she had been infected, but noted that she had recently gone
running without wearing a mask and had also removed her mask to eat and drink
while waiting to board her flight from the U.K.
According to the report, Shanghai authorities have
undertaken several control measures, including contact tracing and
disinfection. So far, authorities have not reported other connected cases.
The outbreak of the new coronavirus variant forced the U.K.
government to impose stricter lockdown measures on London and other cities in
southeastern England before Christmas Day, with several countries responding by
banning travel from the U.K. Despite these measures, more than a dozen
countries have since reported patients being infected by the new variant.
Countries around the world, including Philippines, have cut
off travel links to Britain to stop the spread of the new variant, which
scientists have said is 40-70 percent more transmissible than the original
virus.
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