A mutated strain of COVID-19 causes most of the new infections in Europe and has been spread across the continent by tourists, scientists say

• Most of the new cases of COVID-19 in Europe come from a mutated variant of the virus spread from Spain by tourists, scientists said in a report Thursday.

• The coronavirus variant originated in northeastern Spain in June and was brought overseas by tourists and other travelers, the scientists said.

• There isn’t enough data to suggest that this variant, known as 20A.EU1, is more deadly, the team from the University of Basel, ETH Zurich and SeqCOVID in Spain said.

• The variant has been identified in 12 countries across the continent, plus Hong Kong and New Zealand.

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The majority of new COVID-19 cases in Europe stem from a mutated strain of the virus that started in Spain and was spread across the continent by tourists, scientists said in a report Thursday.

The variant likely originated in agricultural workers in northeastern Spain, where it was first recorded in June, they said.

The team of scientists from the University of Basel, ETH Zürich in Basel and SeqCOVID in Spain said that a suspected “super diffuser” event was responsible for the early proliferation of the virus, which was then spread abroad by tourists and other travelers.

By October, the variant had been identified in 12 countries across the continent, plus Hong Kong and New Zealand, they said.

There is no data yet to suggest this variant is more deadly, they said.

The variant of SARS-CoV-2, known as 20A.EU1, had spread to at least six European countries by the end of July.

Hundreds of variants of the virus exist in Europe, but few are as prevalent as cluster 20A.EU1, the scientists said.

“This variant, 20A.EU1, and a second variant 20A.EU2 … account for most of the recent sequences in Europe,” the scientists said.

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Tourists returning from Spain played a significant role in spreading the virus across Europe, the researchers said.

More than four in five new cases of the virus in the UK have resulted from this variation, and scientists have linked this to around 250 individual transmissions of the virus across the country in July and August.

By comparison, viral sequence analysis in Hong Kong suggests that the infections came from a single source and that the New Zealand samples may have come from just three separate transmissions from Europe.

The variant is mostly contained in Europe due to intercontinental travel, the scientists said. Authorities allowed un-quarantined travel for parts of the summer.

The increased prevalence of 20A.EU1 across Europe “implies that guidelines and restrictions on summer travel were generally not sufficient to prevent further submissions,” the scientists said.

The variant may be more contagious than the usual SARS-CoV-2 strain, the team added, but they said it’s “particularly difficult” to definitively determine why the variant is spreading so rapidly.

Scientists don’t know if the variant is more severe due to a lack of data, they added. Genomic surveillance allows them to detect and monitor this cluster, but “the absence of consistent and uniform sequencing across Europe has still limited our efforts.”

Governments should take the data into account when planning a return to travel across Europe, the researchers added.

The report comes after France and Germany announced tighter restrictions on Wednesday.

Countries will face a month-long lockdown, in which bars and restaurants will have to close again. In France, even non-essential shops cannot stay open, while in Germany hotels cannot accommodate tourists and gyms and theaters have to close.

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