Cases of the more contagious variant of Covid-19 first identified in the UK have been confirmed in several European countries as well as Canada and Japan.

Infections linked to people who arrived from the UK were reported in Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and France.

A couple found infected in Ontario, Canada, had no known travel history or high-risk contacts, officials say.

Japan is to ban most non-resident foreign nationals from entering the country for a month.

Since reporting infections in five passengers who had all arrived from the UK, the country has confirmed two more cases, one of which is said to have been domestically transmitted.

News of the new variant triggered travel restrictions around the world last week.

Meanwhile, several EU countries have started to vaccinate people against the virus ahead of a co-ordinated rollout across the whole bloc on Sunday.

Health workers in north-east Germany said they were not prepared to wait another day to distribute the newly approved Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. They began by immunising elderly residents of a nursing home in Halberstadt.

In Hungary, the state news agency said the first recipient of the vaccine was a doctor at Del-Pest Central Hospital. The authorities in Slovakia also said they had begun vaccinating.

The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has released a video on Twitter celebrating the vaccine rollout, calling it a “touching moment of unity.

What is the new variant?

The new variant first detected in southern England in September is blamed for sharp rises in levels of positive tests in recent weeks in London, south-east England and the east of England

About two-thirds of people testing positive in these areas could have the new variant – but this is only an estimate, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) says.

Three things are coming together that mean the new variant is attracting attention:

–              It is rapidly replacing other versions of the virus

–              It has mutations that affect part of the virus likely to be important

–              Some of those mutations have already been shown in the lab to increase the ability of the virus to infect cells

–              All of these build a case for a virus that can spread more easily, says the BBC’s health and science correspondent, James Gallagher. Experts say the leading vaccines developed in recent months should still work.