Madrid:
Madrid authorities on Friday confirmed the 1st case in the area of the Brazilian variant of coronavirus, which is feared to be especially infectious, in the area.
A 44-year-old man who arrived at Madrid’s airport on January 29 tested positive for the coronavirus and subsequent lab tests confirmed he had caught the new strain, the regional government of Madrid stated in a statement.
The case is the 1st report in Spain of the variant, blamed for a disastrous surge in infections in the Brazilian city of Manaus.
The announcement came 3 days right after Spain restricted arrivals by air from Brazil and South Africa to curb the spread of new strains.
Madrid has considering the fact that the finish of December also restricted arrivals from Britain due to the fact of the discovery of a new virus strain there final year.
Health authorities are concerned that new strains of the virus may perhaps spread more very easily or could include mutations which permit the virus to evade the effects of vaccines.
At least two instances of the South African variant have so far been detected in Spain and about 450 instances of the British variant.
Spain has been really hard-hit by the pandemic, recording more than 61,000 deaths from almost 3 million instances so far.
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