A new variant of the coronavirus first detected in the UK has been confirmed in northern Mexico, health officials said on Sunday. 

It's the first time the more contagious variant was found in Mexico, home to the pandemic's fourth-highest death toll globally.

A 56-year-old British man who flew on December 29, 2020 from Mexico City to the city of Matamoros, just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, tested positive for the new strain, both state and national health officials said on Sunday.

The man arrived in the Mexican capital a day earlier on a flight from Amsterdam, said Jose Luis Alomia, head of epidemiology for the national health ministry, at a regular government news conference.

He was asymptomatic upon arriving in Matamoros and is now hospitalized in the city. He was placed on a ventilator on Saturday.

Mexico on Sunday reported 10,003 new confirmed cases and 502 more fatalities, bringing its total to 1,534,039 infections and 133,706 deaths.

(With input from Reuters)