The so-called UK coronavirus strain was first discovered in Bosnia and Herzegovina in a foreigner who recently visited the country as a tourist, according to a lab chief at the Sarajevo Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, where the new virus variant was detected.

“We know the identity of the person and the country the person comes from but it is the stance of the officials not to expose his name and surname because of stigmatisation concerns,” said Teufik Goletic, the chief of the Laboratory for Molecular-Genetic Research at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, speaking to local media.

The patient underwent the test on December 25.

“We found the sample interesting because it was a young person coming from the place where the variant and its transmission have already been detected,” explained the doctor.

Officially known as the COVID-19 strain B.1.1.7 was reported in Bosnia on Tuesday for the first time after dozens of countries reported the new strain presence worldwide.

The information comes while the country has around 13,000 active coronavirus cases, officially confirmed, and while it is still awaiting the vaccines to start the mass immunisation of its population.

So far, only Republika Srpska entity, one of two Bosnia’s regions which makes a little less than half of the country, received two thousand doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, while the official delivery through COVAX mechanism for the whole country is still being expected.