COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark on Saturday found its first case of a more contagious coronavirus variant from South Africa and saw an increase in the number of infections with the highly transmissible B117 variant first identified in Britain.
The Nordic country on Wednesday extended a three-week lockout in an effort to curb the spread of the new variant from Britain, which authorities say will be dominant by mid-February.
Denmark has become a frontrunner in monitoring coronavirus mutations by performing the most positive tests through genome sequence analysis.
Between mid-November and January 10, 256 Danes were infected with the new variant from Britain, the State Serum Institute (SSI) said in a report published on Saturday.
This corresponds to 1.3% of all positive tests that were genetically analyzed during that period.
In the first week of January, the percentage of positive tests with the mutation was 3.6%, a growth rate that worried the authorities and caused the closure to expand.
Preliminary data showed that 11 of those infected with the variant had traveled before the infection, including five in Britain, but SSI said it was unclear whether they were infected abroad or in Denmark.
Later on Saturday, SSI announced that the first case of infection with another more contagious variant first found in South Africa had also been registered with someone who had traveled to Dubai.
Reported by Nikolaj Skydsgaard; Edited by John Stonestreet and Helen Popper