Airport passengers in the Netherlands, where the new variant has been detected
Credit: Ben Curtis/AP
The ‘UK variant’ of coronavirus has is now being spread by non-Britons in Europe as it emerged that an Italian spy was not infected by English partner.
It was initially assumed that the woman, 42, had caught the disease from her partner, who is a former British Army officer.
The couple tested positive for the virus in Rome last week after they returned to Fiumicino Airport from the UK.
However it has now been confirmed that the partner tested positive for the normal variant of coronavirus and did not import the new strain.
Cases of the variant — which was first detected in September — have also been picked up elsewhere across the continent and beyond, showing that it is now being caught and spread by non-Britons with no connection to the UK.
French health officials confirmed that it had been detected in a first patient, who displayed no symptoms and has now entered self-isolation, on Saturday morning.
Northern Ireland recorded its first case on Wednesday night, while German officials said on Christmas Day that the variant had also reached the country.
In Japan, ministers are investigating how the strain arrived after confirmation that five citizens had tested positive.
Cases have also been recorded in Denmark, Gibraltar, Lebanon, Australia and Singapore.
Scientists from the Nervtag group, which advises the British Government on pandemic policy, have said they are “highly confident” the new strain is significantly more transmissible.
Initial analysis suggested that VUI-202012/0 could spread up to 70 per cent more easily than the original virus, while the Office for National Statistics said on Thursday that as many as two-thirds of cases in London could be the new variant.
A further variant similar to the ‘UK strain’, which Matt Hancock said could be “yet more transmissible”, has also been recorded in South Africa.
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