PRAGUE, Feb 25 (Reuters) – The Czech Republic has confirmed its first case of the COVID-19 variant first detected in South Africa, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry had reported some new COVID-19 infections suspected to be from the South African variant this week.

The central European country has sought to rein in a fast-rising COVID-19 infection rate, which has also been accelerated by the spread of the British variant of the virus in past weeks.

On Wednesday, the Health Ministry said it would ban citizens until April 11 from travel to countries with high risk of South African and Brazilian variants.

(Reporting by Jason Hovet and Robert Muller; Editing by Alison Williams)

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