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The rapid contagion that this variant has shown reinforces the initial suspicion that it may be more contagious, explained researcher Felipe Naveca, who leads the studies of virus mutations in that state.
“It is already the dominant in Manaus. It already appeared in 51% of the December sequenced samples, and now, until January 13, in 91% of the samples. In addition, it is spreading throughout the interior of the state. We found it in 11 of the 13 municipalities that we analyzed ”, he added.
On Tuesday the first three cases of this variant were detected in the state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in Brazil, the second country with the most deaths from coronavirus, with more than 218,000, only behind the United States.
“All the indications already indicated that it is more contagious, because it has mutations that had already been related to the greater transmission that the United Kingdom and South Africa variants have. Now, this data of the very high frequency with which it has been found reinforces the suspicion that it is more contagious ”, added the scientist, a member of the Leônidas Institute and Maria Deane who works together with the prestigious Fiocruz Foundation.
The new variant, known as Brazil P.1, was initially detected in Japan in people returning from the Brazilian Amazon.
After being detected this month in Japan, Germany and in the state of Minnesota, Brazil has been the target in recent days of measures to restrict flights to the United States, United Kingdom, Italy or Peru, and this Wednesday Colombia, which canceled the routes from and to that country for a month to prevent it from circulating in the national territory.
According to Naveca, Brazil P.1 is a mutation of “one of the 18 lineages” of coronavirus that have circulated in the state of Amazonas since the beginning of the pandemic and that became dominant during the second half of 2020.
The researcher explained that with the data collected so far “it is not enough to say that this variant is more lethal”Although the authorities do not rule out that its spread is related to the dramatic increase in deaths and cases in the state of Amazonas since the beginning of the year.
That collapse left intensive care units saturated and dozens of people suffocated from lack of oxygen.
