A patient in Italy was detected to have been infected with the more contagious strain of COVID-19 recently discovered in the United Kingdom, Italy’s health ministry announced on Sunday.
The ministry said the patient and his partner came back to the country from UK few days ago on a flight that landed at Rome’s Fiumicino airport and were now in isolation.
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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.
The patient’s contraction of the new strain comes as at least six countries temporarily suspended travel to the UK besides for official exceptions after officials reported the new strain that appears to be more contagious.
Austria, Belgium, Germany, Israel, Italy and the Netherlands instituted suspensions on flights to the UK on Sunday amid the country’s rise in cases and the discovery of the more transmissible strain.
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Italy banned entry from anyone who was in the UK over the past 14 days, The Associated Press reports.
However, former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who has been nominated to retake the position under President-elect Joe Biden, told NBC that the UK’s newly discovered strain does not appear to deadlier.
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He stated;
While it seems to be more transmissible, we do not have evidence yet that this is a more deadly virus to an individual who acquires it.
Murthy added that there is no evidence the coronavirus vaccines would be less effective against this strain.
Italy was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year and has recorded nearly 2 million cases and 68,799 fatalities, the fifth most deaths in any country, since it started, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
United Kingdom has also documented slightly more than 2 million cases and 67,503 deaths, the sixth most cases and deaths of any country.
