Morocco has detected its first two cases of the Indian variant of the coronavirus whose contacts have been isolated to avoid contagion, the health ministry said on Monday.
Morocco has banned flights with most countries and kept a night curfew in place to counter the spread of new variants.
The North African kingdom has confirmed 511,912 cases of COVID-19 and registered nearly 9,032 deaths.
It has rolled out vaccinations more rapidly than its neighbours, inoculating 5.1 million people to date.
The variant, B.1.617, has reached at least 17 countries, from Britain and Iran to Switzerland, sparking global concern and spurring several to close their borders to people travelling from India.
Scientists are studying whether the variant, resulting from two key mutations to the outer “spike” portion of the virus that attaches to human cells, is driving an unexpected explosion in cases in India.
Taiwan has became the latest place to ban arrivals from coronavirus-stricken India on Monday, as it moves to prevent new infections, with more nations reporting cases of a variant first identified in the subcontinent.
On Monday, Taiwan said that except for its citizens, all those who had been in India in the 14 days prior would be barred from entering its territory, while returning Taiwanese face 14 days in centralised quarantine facilities.
Last month, Indonesia, which has been battling one of Asia’s worst COVID-19 outbreaks, stopped issuing visas for foreigners who had been in India in the previous 14 days.
“We need to contain these cases, while there are still only a few of them,” said Indonesian health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, after the first two cases of the variant reported in the southeast Asian nation on Monday.
Neighbouring Malaysia said on Sunday it had detected its first case of the Indian variant, days after imposing a ban on flights from the country.
The World Health Organisation designates the variant as being “of interest”, suggesting it may have mutations that would make the virus more transmissible, cause more severe disease or evade vaccine immunity.
Other strains with known risks, such as those first detected in the Brazil, Britain and South Africa, have been categorised as “variants of concern,” a higher threat level.
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