Vietnam has detected its first imported case of the new coronavirus variant that is spreading rapidly around Britain, the health ministry said on Saturday.

The variant was detected in a 44-year-old woman returning to Vietnam from Britain, who was quarantined upon arrival and was confirmed positive of the virus on December 24, the ministry said in a statement.

"Researchers ran gene-sequencing on the patient's sample and found the strain is a variant known as 'VOC 202012/01,'" it said.