UAE registers first cases of coronavirus variant linked to UK: Gov’t Spokesman
Doha/Sputnik: The United Arab Emirates has confirmed the first cases of coronavirus variant linked to the United Kingdom on its soil, Omar al-Hammadi, a spokesman of the UAE government, said on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, UK health officials announced that the country had identified a new variant of the coronavirus that spreads faster than other strains.
Many countries have suspended passenger travel to and from the UK in a bid to prevent the import of the new virus strain that is up to 70 percent more transmissible, but the UAE has decided against the suspension of air traffic.
"Several cases of infection with a new strain of coronavirus among citizens who arrived in the UAE from other countries have been confirmed in the UAE," al-Hammadi told the Emirati WAM news agency.
To date, the UAE has registered over 204,000 COVID-19 cases, more than 181,000 recovered and 662 related fatalities.
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