Australia confirms two cases of new coronavirus strain that has hit UK

According to Sky News, cases of the new coronavirus strain, which is spreading rapidly in the UK, have been confirmed in countries like Denmark, Italy, Gibraltar, the Netherlands and Australia.

Australia's New South Wales on Sunday reported six new cases of coronavirus in people returning from overseas and in quarantine, out of which two were confirmed having new strains of the virus.

"We've had a couple of UK returned travellers with the particular mutations," NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant told mediapersons.

However, they confirmed that no people detected with new strains were circulating among the community.

New South Wales reported its lowest one-day rise in new infections of Covid-19 giving hopes to authorities that it might be able to control the spike of contamination in Sydney.

The state said 15 people had tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, which is down from the 30 the previous day and brought the total number of cases in a new outbreak centred on Sydney's northern beaches to 83.

As a precautionary measure, NSW imposed a lockdown on Friday in Sydney's northern beaches area.

About 90 locations including cafes, gyms, casinos and supermarkets across Sydney were identified as having been visited by infected people.

New strain first detected in the UK:

First detected in London and the South East earlier this month, the new virus meanwhile is up to 70 per cent more infectious than the original strain because it has a much bigger viral load, said reports.

On Saturday, UK health officials announced that the country had identified a new variant of the coronavirus that is 70 per cent more transmissible than other Sars-Cov-2 virus strains.

The UK government practically locked down parts of the country, including London, after admitting that more than half of all new COVID-19 cases had been caused by the new strain.

The new strain is active in all parts of the UK except Northern Ireland.

Cases in other countries:

In Italy, a couple who landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport had tested positive for the new mutation and were quarantined, the health ministry said on Monday.

Dutch officials have confirmed that they had found a sample of coronavirus early this month having evidence of the mutant strain among them.

In South Africa, a strain that appears to be very similar to the one from the UK has been detected.

However, experts are not yet sure if it is the same strain.

India suspends flights from the UK till Dec 31:

India has temporarily suspending air travel to and from the United Kingdom starting Tuesday, following the discovery of a new coronavirus strain in the UK.

In a statement released on Twitter, the Ministry of Aviation said, "As a measure of abundant precaution, passengers arriving from UK in all transit flights (flights that have taken off or flights which are reaching India before 22nd Dec at 23.59 hrs) should be subject to mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival at the airports concerned."

Canada blocks travel from UK over a new coronavirus variant

Canada has joined several European nations by halting flights from the UK on Sunday in an effort to prevent a new, potentially more contagious strain of the coronavirus found in the UK, media reports said.

Air Canada said in a statement on Sunday night that it would temporarily suspend all flights between Canada and London's Heathrow Airport as of Monday.

"We regret the impact of the government directive to immediately suspend flights on our customers' travel plans in the middle of the holiday season and will continue to monitor this dynamic situation closely and adjust the schedule as appropriate," the statement said.