China has confirmed the first case in the country from the new UK variant
of the coronavirus, AFP reported referring to health officials. The new strain, reportedly faster and more prone to infecting
individuals than the original variant, has already necessitated travel bans on The UK by several countries, including China.

Also read: China’s Sinopharm vaccine granted ‘conditional’ market approval with 79% efficacy rate

The first patient in China who has emerged to be suffering from the new
strain is a 23-year-old woman from the port city of Shanghai who arrived from
the UK on December 14, Chinese Centre for Disease Control reportedly said in a
research note on Wednesday, further informing that her samples were sent for
genetic sequencing on December 24 “due to travel history from the UK and
abnormalities in nucleic acid test results.

The results reportedly displayed a strain different from the original
Wuhan strain, and upon further inspection, was identified as the recent variant
found in the UK labelled as B.1.1.7, spreading in the island country since
October.

Also read: Controversies that grabbed headlines in a pandemic-stricken year

According to AFP, the Chinese CDC statement further added that contact
tracing for the patient has been done.

China banned all flights to and from Britain earlier on December 24 on
an indefinite basis due to the outbreak of the new strain, which, the British
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, as per AFP, “may be up to 70 percent more
transmissible than the original version of the disease”.

Despite the warning of high susceptibility, no
concrete proof of the variant being more severe, or potentially leading to a
higher chance of fatality, has been found yet.