Algeria records 1st cases of UK coronavirus strain Algerians wear face masks in Algiers, Algeria on 27 December 2020 [Mousaab Rouibi/Anadolu Agency] February 26, 2021 at 6:32 pm Algeria has recorded the first two cases of the new UK coronavirus strain, said a medical institute specialised in epidemiology, Anadolu Agency reports. "Two cases of the new British strain were confirmed, and this came after analysis of positive PCR samples, on February 19," the Pasteur Institute of Algeria said on its website. One of the cases was found in an employee of a mental health hospital and the other in a migrant, who returned from France to attend his father's funeral.