The First Case of New Variant COVID-19 Originating in the United Kingdom Detected in a Returning Student — Shanghai Municipality, China, December 14, 2020
Hong-You Chen, Xiaoyan Huang, Xiang Zhao, Yang Song, Peter Hao, Hui Jiang, Xi Zhang, Chen Fu
Abstract
On December 14, 2020, a 23-year-old female returning from the United Kingdom (UK) via airplane was tested by the laboratory of Shanghai Customs using nose swab to test for coronavirus disease 2019 . At 20:30 on December 14, Shanghai CDC received notification from the Shanghai Customs that the patient tested positive for COVID-19. By 22:00, the patient was transported by ambulance from the isolation point to the fever clinic of Jiading District Central Hospital. Due to travel history from the UK and abnormalities in nucleic acid test results, the hospital organized a consultation with experts and formed a recommendation to transfer the patient to Fudan University's Public Health Clinical Center for further diagnosis and treatment, which was carried out the following day. On December 15, Jiading District CDC retested using a nasopharyngeal swab sample and the nucleic acid result was positive for COVID-19.