Domestic Deaths Upon Entry to England: Variant Status Confirmed in First Week of January

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] Among arrivals from the UK, a case of posthumous confirmation of COVID-19 infection has emerged, and it is expected that the determination of whether this patient was infected with a variant virus will be available around the first week of January next year. If confirmed as a variant virus, it will be the first case of the variant virus circulating in the UK being identified domestically.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters (CDCH) stated in an explanatory document on the 27th in response to related questions, "We are in the process of securing specimens," and "Once the specimens are secured, variant testing will be conducted, and results are expected to be confirmed in the first week of January."

Previously, an elderly man in his 80s from Goyang-si, Gyeonggi Province, who died at the National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, was identified as a posthumous confirmed case after returning from the UK.

The patient, who had a heart condition, entered the country from the UK on the 13th and had been under self-quarantine until he suffered cardiac arrest at 10:45 a.m. the previous day and was transferred to the emergency room of Ilsan Hospital. Specimen collection and emergency treatment were performed, but he passed away at 11:27 a.m., 40 minutes later.

The CDCH plans to investigate whether the infection is due to a COVID-19 variant virus, as the infection was confirmed after arrival from the UK. It is known that the quarantine authorities requested the hospital to send specimens on the morning of the same day.

The government has temporarily suspended flights from the UK from the 23rd to the 31st to block the domestic inflow of the variant virus discovered in the UK.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.