Nepal detects first case of the new coronavirus variant

Nepal has detected its first case of the new coronavirus variant that was found in the UK last month, the Ministry of Health and Population said on Monday.

The WHO's collaborating centre in Hong Kong, where swab samples of three people who had returned from the UK some three weeks ago, had been sent for whole-genome sequencing, confirmed that all of them were infected with the new variant, it said.

None of the returnees showed any type of symptom.

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“We have completed contact tracing of all three UK returnees who have been found to have been infected with the new variant of the coronavirus,” Jageshwor Gautam, spokesperson for the Health Ministry said.

Meanwhile, the country’s Covid-19 tally has reached 267,644.