Two boys and a forty-year-old man are the first patients in Veneto of the English variant of Covid

MARGHERA. While Veneto breathes a sigh of relief to see the decline in hospitalizations, there is also the good news of having found the English variant in three very young Venetians who have fallen ill.

Data. The data for the day now sees more than 3 million and 200 thousand swabs. Rapid tests 1,700 thousand. The positives since February have been 237,215, in the last 24 hours 2,523 positives, the current positives are still 88,842. 3,275 hospitalized: 389 in intensive care, 2,885 hospitalizations in the non-emergency system. The victims since February are 5,886, that is + 33 deaths in 24 hours.

The English virus was found at 11.50 a.m. on December 24, the Christmas Eve that officials from the Venice Institute of Prophylaxis spent in the laboratory. A type of virus that is not related to the summer mutation. “At 11:59 p.m., a minute before Christmas, the message arrived,” said regional president Luca Zaia.

Dr. Antonia Ricci, director of the Venice Zooprophylactic Institute (European reference center for bird flu), who was asked to sequence the virus. The working groups of Drs Calogero Terregino and Isabella Monne sequenced it on Christmas Eve.

I study. The Region’s project, started 2 months ago, aims to characterize the viruses that reached Veneto. It all started when 370 guests from Serena’s old barracks presented symptoms different from those of all the other patients. Of these 370, in fact, 256 had a very high burden but had no symptoms. The same in summer in RSA, positive patients with high load and without symptoms. From that moment on, the characterization of 10 samples for each ASL was started every day.

How did it go? 37 viruses were characterized in Veneto in November. Find 8 different variants, 2 of which have never been found in Italy. Most belong to the variant with a mutation in the spike protein that makes it more contagious.

Of 5 patients who had connections to England, a country from which they had returned for study and work reasons, the samples were characterized with a rapid system that identifies a typical mutation of the English variant.

Young people. Of these five patients, three (two women and one man) tested positive (two from Treviso and one from Vicenza). Then there is a new, yet unidentified case. They are all under 40 years old: two are very young, including students. The third is in his early forties. They have all returned from Great Britain for Christmas. They felt fatigued and with a slight fever. They did rapid and then molecular tests and came back positive. The English variant emerged from his swabs. All his contacts were negative except one, close contact in the case of Vicenza, who has a fever. They are all in quarantine.

His story seems to give initial confirmation that the new variant of the virus affects the very young.

Virus analysis shows that the viruses in the first wave are different from those in the second. In Veneto there are all the Italian variants, in addition to some that seem particular and more contagious.

There are 37 Venetian variants, with 8 different genotypes and two more particular to Veneto: they were only found here and not in other areas of Italy.

In Veneto there were several areas where basins of infection had developed: one was the Comelico, then the Agno valley, then Verona.

No connection, according to Dr. Ricci, with the summer virus.

The English variant was discovered thanks to the large number of characterizations made in England. For this reason, Veneto must continue to characterize viruses to understand how to combat them and publish the information in public databases.

Venetian variant? But does this explain the fact that Veneto has the highest contagion rate in Italy (1.1)? For Dr. Ricci the cases are still few. The English variant cannot justify past trends. The second wave virus has several variants, even more typical of our territory, that could explain the trend of the highest index, but we need more data.

Professor Roberto Rigoli, after underlining the importance of teamwork, underlined how the samples sent every month from February for analysis but above all how all the patients studied for the English variant were found with the rapid system, invented just in Veneto by the Rigoli group.

For Francesca Russo, head of the Prevention Department, it is important to publish all the data, so that the positive notification system is linked to these studies. “We sent the finding to the Ministry of Health, with the report of the characterizations made by the Zooprophylactic Institute. The message is that in Veneto we have a much more contagious variant of the virus ”.

Debut of Dr. Luciano Flor, the new Venetian Secretary General of Health. “We have a lot of non-ICUs compared to ICUs, unlike the first wave. Now we understand why: they are different viruses. The disease is of different severity. This wave is very epidemic (that is, contagious). We can adopt any method, but nothing can replace individual behavior. We are not rigorous enough in individual behavior. The frequency of sick people in health personnel who care for Covid patients is lower than in the rest of the population. So you understand that keeping the virus alert is critical. I keep seeing disrespectful people who don’t maintain self-defense systems against the virus. They are disrespectful. This pandemic must be fought together. “

The vaccine. “It will be voluntary, everyone will decide what to do,” Zaia reiterates, “but we are ready, we have already made the electronic vaccination record. We were the first. Obviously, whoever is vaccinated can have a health passport. Then everyone decides.”