General
Thailand confirms first local cases of coronavirus variant
Thailand has confirmed its first local cases of the coronavirus variant first detected in the UK, raising the likelihood that it is facing a new wave of the pandemic.
The variant was found in blood samples from 24 people in a new cluster of cases involving customers of nightlife venues in the capital, Bangkok, said Dr Yong Pooworavan, a virologist from the Faculty of Medicine at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.
Speaking at a Health Ministry news conference, Dr Yong described the variant as 1.7 times more contagious than the original coronavirus, still more common in Thailand.
The variant was found in Thailand for the first time in January in four members of a family arriving from Britain who had been quarantined.
