[ad_1]
The new variant of the coronavirus identified in Great Britain has already reached Italy: the first infected is an Italian woman who has returned from the United Kingdom in recent days. The patient, who is in solitary confinement with her partner who returned from the UK a few days ago, has a strong viral load. The woman, who according to some sources is in the Rome area, had a swab in recent days, probably on a car trip. Her partner is also positive, other family members and her close contacts are also isolated. The man was in London on business.
In Milan and throughout Lombardy, at the moment, there would have been no case. Citizens returning from London have been “all monitored or are being monitored”, confirmed the president of the Region, Attilio Fontana, during a press conference in Milan. Asked about the issue, Fontana replied: “From what we read and from the first statements of the experts, the variation does not affect the severity of the disease or the possibility of using vaccines. We, as the Lombardy Region – he added – have immediately equipped ourselves to identify the modified virus, but for now we have not found any case in Lombardy ”.
Fontana explained that on Sunday he had received a phone call from the Minister of Health Speranza to “be able to implement interventions. We immediately got down to work at the organizational level. We are absolutely prepared to respond to any emergency that may arise ”.
Chancellor Luigi Di Maio had stated that the new covid-19 variant “can increase the Rt transmissibility index by 0.5%”, but in a video message the Director of Prevention of the Ministry of Health, Gianni Rezza, in he for his part explained that “the Sars-CoV2 variant that currently circulates in London and the south-east of England, has mutations in the virus’s surface protein, the so-called Spike. Although it is hypothesized that these mutations may increase the transmissibility of the virus, they do not seem to alter either clinical aggression or the response to vaccines ”.
The new variant of the coronavirus, what is it?
The first to raise the alarm was British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had warned that the mutated variant of the coronavirus has a much higher transmissibility, 70% more. But the scariest was Health Minister Matt Hancock, who claimed that the new variant is “out of control.”
Instead, the head of the British Health Authority Chris Witty had explained two very important things: the first is that the new variant is not proven to be more lethal and to date there is no element that suggests that it is more resistant to vaccines of which in Great Britain the administration begins these days.
The World Health Organization stated that the new covid variant “could affect the efficacy of some diagnostic methods.” That is, it could escape hyssop tests. It is not the first time that the virus has changed: “It has already happened -explained the virologist Andrea Crisanti- with the Shanghai variant that has supplanted that of Whuan. Now the priority is to give adequate resources to the laboratories to carry out the sequencing” .
