Europe became the first region worldwide reportedly to cross 500,000 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, as a new variant of the coronavirus discovered in Britain threatened the region’s prevention measures to curb the pandemic.

Alarmingly, reports of the mutated variant out of England prompted a pre-Christmas lockdown and have forced dozens of countries close their borders to British travelers this week. Italy, the nation with the highest death toll in Europe, on Sunday detected a patient infected with the new variant as have Denmark and France.

To curtail the spread, European countries are mulling screening passengers on flights from UK and obligating quarantine for travelers upon arrival. Earlier this month, the United Kingdom became the first nation to approve the Pfizer Inc - BioNTech vaccine followed by the United States, European Union and other countries.

According to the latest updates, Europe has reported about 30 pc of the global COVID-19 fatalities and cases so far.

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