The Nigerian variant of COVID-19 was isolated in Brescia north of Milan on Tuesday.
Arnaldo Caruso, president of the Italian society of virology, said "for the first time we have managed to isolate the virus bearing these mutations which concern us because they could confer resistance to COVID vaccines today available".
Brescia has been in a 'reinforced orange' COVID zone for the last week and will remain so for another week.
The discovery was made in the laboratories of the Spedali Civili Hospital.
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