ATHENS – Just as Greece has begun vaccinating a relative handful of people against COVID-19 until more shots arrive, four passengers from the United Kingdom who landed at the international airport were discovered to have a new strain.

They tested positive for the coronavirus variant, local media reported, also said Turkey’s state-run Anadolu News Agency, among six who came from the UK during Christmas week.

They were discovered by special molecular testing and analysis that lasted at least three days, reports said, identifying them as to be among five Greek citizens and a Briton but not named. All six were put into a hotel for quarantine for 10 days.

After that ends they will be tested again, Greece still struggling with a second wave that surged during a lenient second lockdown failed to slow the spread, measures extended to Jan. 11.

There were, through Jan. 3, some 140,099 cases, of which 5,463 were linked to travel abroad and 41,926 to already known cases, the death toll at 4,957.