Quarantine officials help travelers arriving at Incheon International Airport on Dec. 27, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: Yonhap News)
[Anchor]
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency has confirmed three cases of a new coronavirus variant that has been spreading rapidly in the United Kingdom.
Officials revealed Monday that the potentially more transmissible variant was detected in three South Korean nationals who arrived from London last week.
Ron Chang reports.
[Reporter]
The KDCA said the family of three arrived from Britain on Tuesday and were tested upon arrival.
They are the first known cases of the COVID-19 variant in the country.
The mutation, which is believed to be 70 percent more contagious, has set off alarm bells around the world, prompting travel restrictions across Europe, the U.S., Canada and Japan.
South Korea followed suit last Wednesday, suspending all flights arriving from the U.K. until the end of the year.
The KDCA is also looking into whether another infected family of four that arrived in South Korea from the U.K. on December 8 and 13 has the variant.
One of the family members, a man in his 80s, died on Saturday and was posthumously diagnosed with COVID-19.
The KDCA is expected to provide more details on the cases and quarantine updates during a briefing at 2 p.m.
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