The new highly contagious strain of Covid-19 recently discovered in the UK has now reached China, according to researchers there.
Chinese researchers have detected the new strain in a woman who was tested on arrival at a Shanghai airport on December 14 after a flight from the United Kingdom, according to an official publication dated Wednesday.
The publication of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, CCDC Weekly, said that the case is “the first variant imported (UK) from China and poses a major potential threat to the prevention and control of COVID-19 in China.”
CCDC Weekly said the 23-year-old gave negative results for Covid-19 two days before her flight to China. Subsequent sequencing of her positive test showed that she was different from a small outbreak in Shanghai in November and strains in Wuhan, where Covid-19 was first found.
The patient’s Covid-19 case was diagnosed as mild, the newspaper said, noting that several control measures were taken to isolate the woman and identify those who sat next to her or cared for her during the flight.