Italy has patient with new strain of virus found in Britain

Italy has detected a patient infected with the new strain of the coronavirus also found in Britain, the health ministry said on Sunday.

The patient and his partner returned from the United Kingdom in the last few days with a flight that landed at Rome’s Fiumicino airport and were now in isolation, the ministry said.

Britain’s European neighbours began closing their doors to travellers from the United Kingdom on Sunday amid alarm about the rapidly spreading strain of coronavirus that has caused cases to soar there.

Earlier on December 19, England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said that a new strain of Covid-19 identified in the United Kingdom can spread more quickly and urgent work is underway to confirm that it does not cause a higher mortality rate.

“As announced on Monday, the UK has identified a new variant of Covid-19 through Public Health England’s genomic surveillance,” Whitty said in a statement.

“As a result of the rapid spread of the new variant, preliminary modelling data and rapidly rising incidence rates in the South East, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) now consider that the new strain can spread more quickly.”

The World Health Organization had also asked European countries to redouble their health measures.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new restrictions Saturday over the new coronavirus strain covering London, the southeast and the east of England.

The new Tier 4 rules necessitate that residents stay at home apart from limited exemptions and that non-essential shops, indoor gyms and leisure facilities and personal care services must close and people must work from home if they can until the next review on December 30.