PARIS, France (AFP)— France is to keep in place restrictions on its border with Britain “until further notice”, Prime Minister Jean Castex said Thursday, after the country confirmed two clusters of the mutant UK coronavirus variant.

France closed its border with Britain on December 20 after the emergence of a new UK strain of the disease, thought to be far more contagious, and “this will be extended until further notice”, Castex said.

Only certain categories of people, including truck drivers, are allowed through the border providing they have can show a negative PCR test during the three preceding days.  

Also Thursday, the French health ministry reported that two clusters of the UK variant had been detected in a care home in the western French region of Brittany, and in Bagneux, a southern suburb of Paris.

“We are clearly expecting to identify others,” Health Minister Olivier Veran told a news conference.

In the home, near the city of Rennes, seven residents and two staff were infected “with a variant form of the virus”, the ministry said. Final test results were expected by the start of next week, the ministry said.

In Bagneux, one person who works in two different schools was also found to be infected with the mutant strain.

Authorities found no evidence of any contact between that person and anybody who had travelled from Britain, which the ministry said could mean that the mutant virus is already circulating in France.

It said testing would now be intensified in schools, and people carrying the new strain had been placed in strict isolation.

A total of 19 cases of infections with the variant have been confirmed in France, as well as three cases of people infected with a different new strain which was first detected in South Africa, it said.

France on Wednesday recorded 25,379 new virus infections in the previous 24 hours, up from 20,489 the day before.

A total of 66,565 people have died from the virus in France, the health authorities said.