[News] In 51 countries COVID-19 cases with British variant are reported, while in 17 with South Africa

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Since the notification that the United Kingdom gave on December 14 about the identification of a variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has a greater transmissibility than that detected in Wuhan at the end of 2019, it has already reached 51 countries in the world. .

Although it is normal for viruses to mutate, concern arises with this and other variants detected in recent weeks because they could increase the number of care in hospital centers that would exceed the installed capacity. There is still no evidence that these mutations lead to greater severity of symptoms.

For the detection of the variants, genomic sequencing of the virus sample is necessary, so countries that have not yet reported cases could be because they have not yet carried out the process or have not identified the patients who could have it.

Until January 13, the countries that have reported cases with the British variant are:

America: United States, Canada, Chile, Brazil, Jamaica, Mexico, Ecuador and Peru.

Europe: Denmark, United Kingdom, Turkey, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Greece, Austria, Romania, Slovakia and Russia.

Oceania: Australia and New Zealand.

Asia: China, India, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Thailand, Iran, Philippines, Oman, and Sri Lanka.

Of these countries, only 31 have shared the genomic sequence of the virus detected.

"We want to encourage countries to increase their level of alert," Sylvain Aldighieri, PAHO's incident manager for covid-19, said at a press conference, calling for the "strict implementation" of the recommended public health measures.

At the same press conference, PAHO Director Carissa Etienne pointed out that there is no evidence so far that these variants affect patients differently, but they do suggest that the virus can spread more easily, putting the disease at risk. response of health systems.

"Maintaining social distancing, wearing face masks in public, and frequent hand washing are still our best option to help control this virus at this time, in all its forms," she said.

With reference to the variant detected in South Africa, the sequencing of samples containing these variants has been reported in 17 countries. The countries that have already detected it are: South Africa, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Zambia, Botswana, France, Japan, Australia, Sweden, Austria, Norway, China, Ireland, Canada, Brazil and Germany.

 

Global meeting on SARS-CoV-2 variants
The World Health Organization (WHO) held a virtual meeting with scientists from 124 countries to discuss research priorities with the emergence of emerging variants of the virus.

In total, six thematic areas were addressed, such as epidemiology and mathematical modeling, evolutionary biology, animal models, tests and diagnoses, clinical and therapeutic management, and vaccines.

The agency indicated that there was a consensus on the importance of integrating the research of the new variants into the global agenda.

"Our collective goal is to get ahead of the game and have a global mechanism to quickly identify and study the variants of interest and understand their implications for disease control efforts," said Dr. Ana María Henao Restrepo, head of the Research Plan and WHO development.