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