COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark found its first case of a more contagious coronavirus variant in South Africa on Saturday and saw an increase in the number of highly transmissible B117 infections first identified in the UK, health officials said.
The Nordic country extended a three-week blockade on Wednesday in a bid to reduce the spread of the new variant in the UK, which authorities expect to be the dominant one until mid-February.
Denmark has become a leader in monitoring coronavirus mutations by performing the most positive tests by analyzing genome sequencing.
Between mid-November and January 10, 256 Danes were infected with the new variant in the UK, the State Serum Institute (SSI) said in a report released on Saturday.
This corresponded to 1.3% of all positive tests genetically analyzed during that period.
In the first week of January, the percentage share of positive tests with the mutation was 3.6%, a growth rate that worried the authorities and led to the prolongation of the blockade.
Preliminary data showed that 11 of those infected with the variant had traveled before the infection, including five in the UK, but SSI said it was unclear whether they had been infected abroad or in Denmark.
Later on Saturday, SSI announced that the first case of infection with another more contagious variant found for the first time in South Africa was also recorded in someone who had traveled to Dubai.
Reporting by Nikolaj Skydsgaard; Editing by John Stonestreet and Helen Popper