MADRID – A new infectious strain of coronavirus that was detected in the United Kingdom last week and which has led to increased restrictions on large parts of England ahead of the Christmas holidays has been circulating in Belgium and the Netherlands for at least a month, authorities in Brussels said.

Officials in France said that the new variant had not yet been detected on French territory, but President Emmanuel Macron has nevertheless called for his compatriots to be increasingly vigilant faced with the new mutation.

Meanwhile in the Czech Republic, a separate mutation of the virus that does not appear to be connected to the new outbreak in the UK that was detected in September was likely behind the surge of cases in the country that meant it was the worst affected in the European Union for several weeks.

BELGIUM

Belgian authorities announced on Monday that the new variant of coronavirus recently detected in the United Kingdom has been circulating for at least a month in Belgium.

Belgium joins the Netherlands and Italy to have also announced that they have detected this new, more infectious strain.

“This variant is not limited to the United Kingdom, but has been detected in other places around the world, including the Netherlands and Belgium,” said Yves Van Laethem, spokesperson for the Belgian coronavirus task force, told a press conference.

The virologist added that “there are currently four known cases in Belgium and that detection was made a month ago.”

“It is possible that there are more cases circulating in our country and in other countries of continental Europe,” added Van Laethem.

He said the mutation has been known “since September” and that it currently represents “60% of new infections in the United Kingdom.”

“There are other variants circulating in our country and other countries (...). It is completely normal for variants to appear” and “eventually become dominant,” added Van Laethem.

“In any case, nothing shows us that it is more violent, more aggressive or more dangerous to our health. Nothing shows us that the vaccines do not give us an immunity against COVID marked with that variant,” he said.

Belgium, like Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy or Austria, Canada or Israel, announced on Sunday that it is temporarily closing air and rail connections with the United Kingdom for at least 24 hours because of the new variant of coronavirus, which has forced a lockdown in southern England.

FRANCE

The French Minister of Health, Olivier Veran, said on Monday that “for the moment” no cases of the new strain of COVID-19 have been detected in France, which has appeared in the United Kingdom, as Macron called for “increased vigilance” against the new threat.

“In recent days, scientists have analyzed 500 viral strains and this variant has not been found. This does not mean that it is not circulating,” Veran told Europe 1 radio station.

Veran said it is “very possible that the virus is circulating now” in France, which since last midnight keeps closed passenger traffic with the United Kingdom for at least 48 hours.

Macron, who presided over a cabinet meeting remotely on Monday as he remains in isolation after testing positive last week, insisted on “increasing vigilance” due to “the problematic mutation of the virus.”

“This shows the complexity of the virus, its aggressiveness, and, I dare say, its inventiveness, and the humility that we must maintain,” Macron said during the meeting.

On Sunday, France joined Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and other EU countries to suspend travel connections to the United Kingdom, after a new more contagious variant of the coronavirus was detected in southern England.

The French government has banned movement from that country for 48 hours, a measure that came into force last midnight for both passenger and freight travel, by rail, air or sea.

The deadline of 48 hours aims to “open a period of coordination” for EU member states to define a common doctrine on the regulation and control of the flow of people and goods from the United Kingdom, a statement said.

CZECH REPUBLIC

The Czech Republic detected a mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in September which could explain the unexpectedly severe impact of the pandemic’s second wave in the Central European country.

It is not yet known whether the strain detected in the Czech Republic is related to the one that has forced a new lockdown to be imposed in England and caused a growing list of countries to cancel all travel to and from the UK.

“I don’t know exactly which mutation is spreading in Britain, but we discovered a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 in September in several outbreaks in Prague,” Helena Jirincova, head of the National Reference Laboratory, said in statements published on Monday in the Pravo newspaper.

“In several places in the Czech Republic, especially in Prague and Central Bohemia, and without any connection between these cases, new variants of the coronavirus have emerged,” the molecular biologist said.

She pointed out that this could explain how some patients who were cured from COVID, contracted the disease again.

The Central European country survived the first wave of the pandemic relatively well, but was one of the worst affected during the second wave, and for several weeks had one of the highest infection rates in the EU.

“The observed mutation means a small change in the ‘spike’ protein and is unlikely to influence the effectiveness of the vaccine,” said Pavel Plevka, director of the CEITEC research group.