France and Japan have both recorded their first cases of a new COVID-19 variant identified in the United Kingdom.
The French health ministry said a Frenchman who recently arrived back in the country from London had tested positive for the new variant of the coronavirus.
The case – the first in France – had been found in the city of Tours. The man in question arrived from London on 18 December. He was currently self-isolating and felt alright, the ministry added.
It comes as the number of cases and deaths from COVID-19 mounted in the country, increasing concerns of a new wave of the virus hitting the euro zone’s second-biggest economy.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on 14 December that a spike in COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom might have been linked to the new variant of the virus in the country.
He said more than 1,000 cases of the new variant had been identified, mainly in southeastern England.
Countries around the world have in recent days closed their borders to both Britain and South Africa following the identification of cases of the new, fast-spreading variant in those countries.
France registered 20,262 new, confirmed COVID-19 cases and 159 more related deaths in hospitals in the last 24 hours.
France’s number of confirmed COVID-19 cases now stands at 2,547,771 while its COVID-19 death toll stands at 62,427 – the seventh-highest in the world.
Meanwhile in Japan, five people were sent into quarantine after their infections were confirmed upon their arrival from Britain between 18 December and 21 December, Health Minister Norihisa Tamura told a news conference late on Friday.
A man in his 60s experienced fatigue while the other four had no symptoms, the Health Ministry said in a statement.
The five arrived before Japan began on Thursday to impose a temporary ban on foreign visitors from Britain.
Currently only Japanese citizens and foreign nationals with resident status are allowed to enter the country. They must go into mandatory quarantine for 14 days after arrival.
Japan on Friday confirmed a record 3823 new infections, marking the highest daily increase for the third straight day.
The country has so far escaped a virus outbreak on the scale seen in Europe and the United States, with a total of more than 215,000 known infections and about 3200 COVID-19-related deaths.
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