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Lithuania detects 1st case of COVID-19 variant from SA

Published : 23 Mar 2021, 22:53

DF News Desk

Students attend the opening ceremony with bouquets of flowers in hand, marking the start of a new school year, at Vilnius Fabijoniskiu Gymnasium in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Sept. 1, 2020. File Photo Xinhua.

Lithuania has detected the first two cases of the COVID-19 variant first identified in South Africa, the country's National Public Health Surveillance Laboratory said on Tuesday, reported Xinhua.

"One case was confirmed from a sample taken in Vilnius County on March 2, the other from a sample taken in Kaunas County on March 8," the laboratory said.

The two cases were not related and had been confirmed by genome sequencing performed at Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos Laboratory.

Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte told reporters that, in light of the appearance of this strain in the country, "I would not rule out that we will have to consider tighter measures."

Lithuania imposed its second nationwide COVID-19 lockdown on Nov. 7, 2020. It was subsequently extended until March 31 this year.

To date, Lithuania's Department of Statistics has confirmed 210,208 COVID-19 cases, 855 of these in the past 24 hours, and 3,501 coronavirus-related deaths.