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Here’s Where 3 New Strains Of Covid-19 Have Traveled So Far

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There now are two known new variants of the coronavirus traveling the world — and possibly a third.

These discoveries have made international travel even more difficult, as countries around the world are imposing stricter Covid-19 restrictions on travel from places with documented cases of the new variants.

The first new variant of the novel coronavirus is the B117 strain, first detected in the United Kingdom in November and now recorded in a growing number of countries in Europe as well as in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Oceania. New research suggests this variant is 56% more transmissible than the virus circulating in the United States. The UK strain has been identified in Denmark, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Australia.

On Wednesday, four cases of the B117 coronavirus mutation were also recorded in Israel. All were passengers who had flown from England in recent days, and they are isolating at home, reported the Jerusalem Post.

Today, Germany recorded its first case of UK variant, after a woman who flew in from London Heathrow to Frankfurt on December 20 tested positive for the strain, reported Reuters. “It is the first known case in Germany,” said the Baden-Wuerttemberg state health ministry in a statement.

Also today, Singapore confirmed its first case of the UK variant, Reuters reported. The traveler came to Singapore from the UK on December 6, quarantined upon arrival and tested positive on December 8. Eleven additional travelers who were already in quarantine in Singapore have also returned preliminarily positive results for the UK strain of the coronavirus.

The new coronavirus “mutates regularly, acquiring about one new mutation in its genome every two weeks” the CDC said in a statement, but the majority of mutations are insignificant. In March, for example, two researchers at a Chinese university identified two separate strains of the Covid-19 virus.

Researchers are still trying to determine the significance of the new UK variant. But the CDC noted that based on early data, “this variant strain has been predicted to potentially be more rapidly transmissible than other circulating strains.”

A second, and potentially even more infectious, new variant of the novel coronavirus was first identified in South Africa and now has emerged in the United Kingdom, the British government has confirmed.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock told reporters on Wednesday that the South African variant is “highly concerning because it is yet more transmissible and it appears to have mutated further than the new variant discovered in the UK.”

Today, Africa’s top public health official said that a third new variant of the coronavirus appears to have emerged in Nigeria, as reported by the Associated Press. “It’s a separate lineage from the UK and South Africa,” John Nkengasong, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters.

None of the new coronavirus variants have been identified in the United States, however, the CDC warned that may be meaningless. Viruses have only been sequenced from about 51,000 of the 17 million US cases — or less than one third of one percent.

“Given the small fraction of US infections that have been sequenced, the variant could already be in the United States without having been detected,” said the CDC.

Currently, more than 40 countries, including Canada, have suspended travel with the United Kingdom. That list does not include the United States, but the CDC has a long-standing Level 4 Health Advisory in place, signifying a very high level of Covid-19 and recommending that travelers “should avoid all travel to the United Kingdom.”

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