A South African strain of COVID-19 was found to have spread in South Korea for the first time. 

The Central Disaster Management Headquarters on Monday reported 41 more cases of COVID-19 variants, including 31 of the U.K. strain and 10 of the South African strain. 

Among them, 22 cases of the U.K. strain and five cases of the South African strain were confirmed to be community infections. 

It is the first time the South African strain - which had been only detected among new arrivals from overseas - was found to have been transmitted in the country. 

All of the five cases were linked to a cluster at a workplace in Gangseo District in western Seoul. They are presumed to have been spread through a family, three members of whom were previously confirmed to have had the same strain. 

The nation overall has so far reported a total of 330 cases of COVID-19 variants, including 280 of the U.K. strain, 42 of the South African strain and eight of the Brazilian strain.