After UK, Australia detects new fast-spreading coronavirus strain

Australia said on Monday it had detected cases of the new fast-spreading coronavirus strain identified in the United Kingdom.

Two travellers from the United Kingdom to Australia's New South Wales state were found carrying the mutated variant of the virus that Britain has said could be up to 70 per cent more infectious. Both are in hotel quarantine, and the recent spike in infections in Sydney is not linked to this, authorities said.

However, Australia's Health Minister Greg Hunt said there are no plans to follow other countries in halting flights from the UK.

Chase told journalists on Monday that Australia's lodging isolate framework, under which global appearances enter required 14-day observed isolate at committed inns, implied Australia would not be doing likewise. 

"Something in Europe is that they have not received a comparable [hotel quarantine] framework," Hunt said. 

Australian health authorities said a virus strain in northeastern Sydney matched a traveller from the United States, but how it got from the airport to the community was puzzling.

Much is unknown about the strain, but experts said current vaccines should still be effective against it.

Countries around the world have begun banning flights and travellers from Britain as London said Sunday the spread of a more-infectious new coronavirus strain was now "out of control”, stoking fears among many that a resurgence in the peak-level cases could be seen in parts of the world if the new variant of COVID-19 isn’t stopped.

Earlier, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned that the new strain of the coronavirus is “out of control” and suggested parts of England will be stuck in the new, highest tier of restrictions until a vaccine is rolled out.

Emerging scientific evidence suggests the new variant, which Hancock said has also appeared in Australia and continental Europe, can spread significantly more quickly than previous strains in circulation and is behind the surge in infections in recent days.

The government had initially announced an easing of restrictions to allow families to meet over Christmas, but changed its plans after it was presented last week with dire analysis of the new strain that is running rampant across southeast England. 

Britain has been badly hit by the pandemic, with more than 67,000 deaths of those testing positive for the virus.