First Case Of Indian COVID-19 Variant Now Found In This Country

Pic courtesy: The Straits Times

Geneva: The first case of COVID-19 variant responsible for the massive second wave in India, has been detected in Switzerland, the public health authority said on Saturday.

“The first case of the Indian variant of Covid-19 has been discovered in Switzerland,” Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) tweeted.

The COVID variant was found in “a passenger who arrived in Switzerland after transiting through a European airport.”

“The person changed flights in a European country before flying on to Switzerland,” spokesman Daniel Dauwalder was quoted as saying by news agency AFP in an email. According to Dauwalder, the positive sample was collected in March in the northern canton of Solothurn.

The development comes after Belgian authorities on Thursday said a group of 20 Indian nursing students who arrived from Paris had tested positive for the variant in the country.

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