MURMANSK, Russia, (Sputnik) – Sweden has recorded the first case of the new strain of the coronavirus recently discovered in the UK, said Sara Byfors, the head of Sweden’s health department.
“It has been confirmed that a person from Soderman country has contracted the mutant strain of COVID-19 discovered in the UK,” Byfors said at a news conference.
The official added that the infected person had arrived from the UK and isolated himself upon returning home. The patient’s family did not contract the infection.
Byfors stressed that Sweden had started a large-scale investigation to find out if the new infection was spreading in the country.
“Since the information came out, we have intensified monitoring. Today, we are analyzing the tests on everyone returning from the UK from October. Monday we made a recommendation for anyone traveling to get tests so we could get the infection. and ensure that this variant of the virus does not spread within Sweden, “said Byfors.
Last week, the UK announced that a new strain of coronavirus has been detected in the country, with the new variant being 70 percent more transmissible than other SARS-CoV-2 variants. After the news broke, many countries suspended travel to and from the UK. However, there is no evidence that the new strain is more pathogenic. Cases of the new variant of the virus have been reported by a number of countries, including Denmark, Japan, Singapore and Spain.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Sweden has not confirmed new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, with a total of 396,048. The country registered 28,928 new COVID-19 infections in the past week.