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Agence France-Presse

France has confirmed the first case of a new coronavirus variant that recently emerged in Britain, its health ministry said.
The new strain of the virus, which experts fear is more contagious, has prompted more than 50 countries to impose travel restrictions on the UK.
The first French case – found in a citizen living in Britain who arrived from London on December 19 – is asymptomatic and self-isolating at home in Tours in central France, the ministry said late Friday.
They were tested in a hospital on December 21, and later found positive for the strain.
US says visitors from Britain must have negative Covid-19 test
Health authorities have carried out contact-tracing for the health professionals taking care of the patient, the ministry said in a statement.
Any of their contacts that were seen as vulnerable would similarly be isolated, it said.
In addition to this first case, several other positive samples that “may suggest the VOC 202012/01 variant are being sequenced” by the specialist laboratories of the national Pasteur Institute, the statement added.


On Monday, France’s health minister Olivier Veran had admitted that it was possible the newly discovered strain was already in the country.
Italian authorities have detected the new strain in a patient in Rome, while the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that nine cases have been detected in Denmark and one each in the Netherlands and Australia.
Coronavirus strain spreading at ‘dangerous rate’ in Britain
Following the snap 48-hour ban this week, France had reopened its borders to the UK – partly to allow French citizens to return home, as well as to relieve the massive build-up of freight goods – but had instituted a testing policy.
France’s interior ministry said on Thursday that limits on travel from Britain would continue “until at least January 6”.
For now, only citizens of France or the EU, those with residency rights there or business travellers are allowed to make the crossing from the UK – if they can show a negative Covid-19 test less than three days old.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the new viral strain “may be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than the original version of the disease”.
Ahead of Christmas British health minister Matt Hancock announced the expansion of strict lockdown measures across further parts of the south of England to contain the spread of the disease.
With more than 68,000 deaths from the virus, the United Kingdom is one of the hardest hit countries in Europe.


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Coronavirus pandemic

France confirms first case of coronavirus variant first reported in Britain

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TOPSHOT - A healthcare worker holds a Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine at Memorial Healthcare System, in Miramar, Florida on December 14, 2020. - The United States kicked off a mass vaccination drive Monday hoping to turn the tide on the world's biggest coronavirus outbreak, as the country's death toll neared a staggering 300,000. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP)

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Coronavirus


The person, a French citizen living in Britain, is asymptomatic and self-isolating at home in the city of Tours
Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and Japan have also joined the growing list of countries that have identified their first cases of the new strain



The person, a French citizen living in Britain, is asymptomatic and self-isolating at home in the city of Tours.
