People pass closed shops on Regent Street, in London on Monday Dec. 21, 2020.
Sweden has confirmed the first case of a more infectious variant of the coronavirus that has been rapidly spreading in the UK recently. According to the details, a person who travelled from London to Sweden to celebrate Christmas has been confirmed sick with the new strain. The patient has been self-isolating since arriving in the southwestern province of Sormland, while no one else in the household has tested positive for COVID-19. Sweden's Public Health Agency has however said more cases in Sweden are likely, that have yet to be detected.
The person started feeling ill after arriving in Sweden. He had tested positive for COVID-19 on December 21 after experiencing extreme fatigue and body ache. On Saturday, it was confirmed that the person was infected with the mutated strain of the coronavirus.
The Public Health Agency in Sweden has increased its efforts to monitor the new coronavirus strain and is now aiming to collect tests from everyone who has arrived in Sweden from the UK since October.
"On Monday, we issued a new recommendation urging everyone who has been in the UK to get tested so that we can conduct contact tracing and ensure this virus strain does not spread in Sweden. Those who do not show any symptoms should also get tested," said an official.
The Public Health Agency has also urged anyone who has travelled to Sweden from the UK and those in their households to self-isolate.
Meanwhile, Spain has also detected at least four cases of the new strain of coronavirus, which was initially reported in Britain.
All four cases involved people who recently arrived from Britain. However, none of the confirmed cases were serious.
The highly infectious new strain of the coronavirus recently reported in Britain has prompted British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to announce the new tier four of coronavirus restrictions for London and other parts of England a week ago to combat an alarming surge in infections linked to the new virulent strain.
The new strain of the virus, which "maybe up to 70 per cent more transmissible," also triggered travel restrictions on Britain and sounded the fresh alarm on COVID-19 which is known to have infected about 80 million people and caused over 1.7 million deaths worldwide.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States are racing to find a vaccine.
According to the website of the World Health Organization, as of December 22, there were 233 Covid-19 candidate vaccines being developed worldwide, and 61 of them were in clinical trials.
