COVID-19: Portugal reports its first case of mutated South African coronavirus strain

On Friday, Portugal reported its first case of the novel South African COVID-19 strain.

The South African strain of coronavirus is much more transmittable than previous COVID-19 strains.

Portugal reported its first case of COVID-19 on 2 March 2020.

The United States is currently leading global COVID-19 cases with over 25.3 million infections and 422,796 fatalities, although India trails behind with 10.6 million cases and 153,218 deaths. As for the third-highest caseload and death toll, Brazil follows with 8.7 million cases and 215,243 deaths.

The novel coronavirus was first discovered in Wuhan, Hubei, China, on Dec. 31, 2019, and has infected more than 98.6 million individuals worldwide, resulting in over 2.1 million fatalities across 219 countries and territories.