Cases of the more contagious variant of Covid-19 first identified in the UK have been confirmed in several European countries as well as Canada and Japan. Infections linked to people who arrived from the UK were reported in Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and France. A couple found infected in Ontario, Canada, had no known travel history or high-risk contacts, officials say. Japan is to ban most non-resident foreign nationals from entering the country for a month from Monday.

People walk on the streets of Tokyo, Japan. Photo: 26 December 2020IMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS
image captionPeople in Tokyo on Saturday

Since reporting infections in five passengers who had all arrived from the UK, the country has confirmed two more cases, one of which is said to have been domestically transmitted.

News of the new variant triggered travel restrictions around the world last week.

Meanwhile, several EU countries have started to vaccinate people against the virus ahead of a co-ordinated rollout across the whole bloc on Sunday.

Health workers in north-east Germany said they were not prepared to wait another day to distribute the newly approved Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. They began by immunising elderly residents of a nursing home in Halberstadt.

In Hungary, the state news agency said the first recipient of the vaccine was a doctor at Del-Pest Central Hospital. The authorities in Slovakia also said they had begun vaccinating.