Mexico detects 1st case of UK variant
A new, more infectious variant of the novel coronavirus that was first detected in the United Kingdom has now been discovered in Mexico.
The strain, called B117, was confirmed in a 56-year-old foreign citizen who had traveled from Amsterdam to Mexico City on Dec. 28, and then to the northeastern city of Matamoros the following day. The individual was asymptomatic when he arrived in the country, according to Mexico's director general of epidemiology, Jose Luis Alomia Zegarra.
After testing positive for COVID-19, the man was admitted to a Mexican hospital last week where he remains intubated, Zegarra said.
![](https://s.abcnews.com/images/International/paramedic-sanitized-covid-patient-mexico-getty-210_hpEmbed_20210111-071634_3x2_992.jpg)
Genomic sequencing of the patient's sample that tested positive for COVID-19 revealed its B117 lineage. More than 500 suspected cases of the U.K. variant have been tested in Mexico, but this is the country's first verified case, according to Zegarra.
Mexican health authorities are tracking contacts of the patient, including people who traveled on the same flight. Two individuals who showed symptoms have since tested negative for COVID-19, while another 31 are asymptomatic and remain in isolation. Officials have been unable to locate 12 others, Zegarra said.
The highly contagious strain has become prevalent in London and other parts of southeast England, after first being identified in the English county of Kent in September. The B117 variant has since been detected in over a dozen other countries.