VIENNA, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Austria has detected five new cases of the mutant strains of coronavirus first found in the UK and South Africa, the Health Ministry announced at a press conference on Monday.
The five cases include four infected with the strain first found in the UK and one with the variant first detected in South Africa. Three of the five infected people are children.
"There was no infection in the family circle," Franz Allerberger, head of Austria's Public Health Agency, told the press conference, adding that contact tracing procedures in all cases were well followed.
The Austrian government on Monday decided to further extend the current COVID-19 lockdown to Jan. 24.
The latest data from Austria's Public Health Agency show that Austria has recorded 366,525 COVID-19 cases over the course of the pandemic, with 6,357 deaths.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.
Meanwhile, 232 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 60 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Dec. 29. Enditem