National Institute of Health ruled out the entry of the new strain of covid-19 into Colombia

This December 2, the National Institute of Health (INS) ruled out the entry of the new strain of covid-19 into the national territory, after confirming that the citizen who arrived in the country from the United Kingdom and had tested positive for the coronavirus had been infected in Colombia.

For this reason, the INS He clarified that the new strain, which according to scientific evidence may become more contagious, has not entered the country.

The Minister of Health, Fernando Ruiz Gomez, indicated on December 31 that 21 genomic studies of the Sars CoV-2 virus have been carried out in the country that have shown that several strains of the same “are circulating in the national territory.”

For this reason, the portfolio manager called on Colombians to take special care on these dates.

“It is inconceivable that people risk the lives of their parents and grandparents for a party time. Ibagué, Cali, Cúcuta, Pereira are cities that have a growth in cases and deaths due to some who are making things very difficult “Ruiz Gómez concluded.

For his part, the director of the Departmental Health Institute (IDS), pointed out that the relatives of the citizen who is in Cúcuta, capital of the border department of Norte de Santander, tested negative for covid-19 and concluded the mandatory quarantine .

“A test was carried out and sent to the National Institute of Health to verify if it is a case of covid-19 of the variants that circulate in the national territory, or if it is a case from Europe, specifically the United Kingdom” said the director Martínez in statements collected by the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.

In Norte de Santander the alarms were set off due to the possible entry into Colombia of the new strain of covid-19 that originated in the United Kingdom. Although the cases have not been confirmed, the department’s health authorities have already sent the tests to the National Institute of Health to rule out that it is this new strain of the virus..

These would be several citizens who arrived from London, England, several days ago to Cúcuta, who remain in strict quarantine. There are four people who make up a family and who are asymptomatic and are waiting to confirm if they have the new strain.

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The regional newspaper La Opinion had access to a report signed by the departmental comptroller and the president of the Regional Commission for Moralization of Norte de Santander, Sergio Enrique Rosas Ramírez, in which he asked the departmental authorities about the possibility of the presence of the new strain of covid-19 from the United Kingdom.

Faced with this request, the director of the Departmental Health Institute (IDS), Carlos Martínez, reported that officially there is no confirmatory report, “However, the institute has been following up on two cases, one of a male, who arrived on December 12 from England, and after being tested last week the result was positive for COVID-19”.

Martínez also assured that on December 30 they performed the tests again on this group of people to verify their health.

But the family is not the only one with suspicion of having the new strain, There is a fifth citizen who arrived on December 12, confirmed as positive for covid-19, and they also await results from the National Institute of Health if it was infected by the new strain.

“Mandatory quarantine was ordered for those five cases. We are awaiting the results of the tests carried out on December 30 to verify if it is the normal strain that is in our territory or the strain that has been discovered in the United Kingdom”, Expressed the director of the IDS, quoted by RCN Radio.

And he added: “The case of the citizen who arrived on December 12, it is presumed that he was infected in Cúcuta and we are still waiting for results.”

“Obviously it will reach us”: MinSalud on the British strain of covid-19

According to the National Government, the country can be calm regarding the possible entry of the British strain of covid-19. This was stated by the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Fernando Ruiz, during his speech in the “Prevention and Action” program, led by the President of the Republic of Colombia, Iván Duque.

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According to the head of the health portfolio, “It is very likely that we have it in Colombia as well”. However, he added, “what we know so far is that it is a more contagious strain, but it is not more lethal, nor more severe,” so the level of state concern is not that high. In this regard, Duque also recalled that current vaccines also seem to be effective against this variation of the virus.

The foregoing, however, does not mean that the national authorities are not pending. In fact, Ruiz noted, “so far the National Institute of Health (INS) has generated about 219 sequencing that study the genetic structure of the virus, 21 of these genomic studies have been carried out looking for the new British strain ”, of which there is already a record in 24 countries to date.

According to The New York Times, “The new variant infects more people than the first versions of the coronavirus, even though the environments are the same. It is not clear why the variant has this advantage, although there are indications that it could infect cells more efficiently “.