A NEW study has suggested that as many as 80% of the coronavirus cases in Scotland in September can be traced back to Spain.
The study’s findings seem to highlight the dangers in allowing travel to go unrestricted, as “the virus moves when people move”.
Swiss researchers have released the data, which is yet to be peer-reviewed, around a new coronavirus variant termed 20A.EU1.
The strain seems to have originated in Spain during the summer, and has since spread to multiple European countries.
The authors of the study said “in Wales and Scotland the variant was at 80% in mid-September, whereas frequencies in Switzerland and England were around 50% at that time”.
The variant first appeared in the UK in mid-July, when quarantine-free travel to Spain was still allowed.
However, it has since spread to multiple European countries meaning it may have entered the UK from multiple sources.
READ MORE: Covid in Scotland: The latest weekly rates of Covid-19 for every Scots area
Dr Emma Hodcroft, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Basel and lead author of the study, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme there was no sign the strain was more dangerous than any other variants.
Professor Devi Sridhar, the chair of global public health at Edinburgh University, had previously warned that Europeans were sacrificing a Covid-free winter for a summer holiday.
In an article published by the New York Times in mid-August, Sridhar said: “The internal issues within the United Kingdom provide a glimpse of how the rest of Europe works. Because of Europe’s economic and social integration, and freedom-of-movement laws within the European Union, a strategy to stop community transmission of Covid-19 requires ... strict checks on international travel.”
She added: “European countries need to introduce serious limitations on nonessential travel ...
“The virus moves when people move. This does not mean borders need to be closed. But people need to be tested on arrival in a new country and then again five days later. There has to be enforced isolation until two negative tests at least five days apart.”
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