[News] Argentina is the fifth country in South America to report cases with the British variant of SARS-CoV-2

[#Steeven.™]

Argentina detected the first case of the new variant of coronavirus in a man who resides in the United Kingdom and who arrived in the country at the end of December, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Roberto Salvarezza, reported this Saturday.

The Interagency Consortium for the Genome Sequencing and Genomic Studies of SARS-COV-2, created by the Ministry of Science, "detected the variant of SARS-CoV-2 from the United Kingdom in a traveler from abroad. It has already been reported to health authorities, "wrote the minister on the social network Twitter.

It is about "an Argentine resident in the United Kingdom, with a history of travel to Austria and Germany for work reasons, who arrives asymptomatic to Argentina from Frankfurt at the end of December 2020 and in (at the international airport of) Ezeiza is positive of SARS CoV 2 antigens, "the report states.

"The result was confirmed by PCR in the laboratory and the sequencing of the S gene confirmed the presence of the variant VOC202012 / 01 (United Kingdom) (lineage B.1.1.7), being the first time it has been detected in the country", he adds.

The man is quarantined at an address in the city of Buenos Aires, the party said.

The British variant of the coronavirus is the second to be registered in Argentina, after that of Rio de Janeiro.

The country began its vaccination campaign on December 29 with 300,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine.

The other 300,000 doses, which contain the second component to complete the vaccine made by the Russian laboratory Gamaleya, arrive this Saturday from Moscow on a plane chartered by the government.

In a first stage, the most exposed health personnel between 18 and 59 years old are inoculated. 200,759 doses have already been applied throughout the country, the Secretary of Access to Health, Carla Vizzotti, reported on Friday.

Argentina also approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine. Alberto Fernández's government plans to acquire a total of 51 million doses.

Argentina, with 44 million inhabitants, has registered more than 1.78 million infections since March last year with 45,227 deaths and 1.56 million recovered.

The occupation of intensive care beds nationwide is 53.7% on average, but rises to 58.9% in Buenos Aires and its periphery, according to the Health Ministry.

Last week, the authorities warned of a sharp increase in cases in the middle of the southern summer, for which night activities were restricted with the closure of shops from 1 to 6 in the morning and social gatherings were again limited to 10 people.

The borders are closed until February 1 for non-resident foreigners and the arrival of direct flights from the United Kingdom has been prohibited.