The British strain of coronavirus in Lithuania: judging by the circumstances, the infected

I. Olendraitė stated that the case was discovered late last week. Asked why it was made public just a few days later, on Monday, the interlocutor considered that it would be desirable to have the final results.

“A letter was written to certain people, yesterday we received a sequence of that virus. Maybe they were waiting for the final results, “said the virologist.

I. Olendraitė said that there are likely more cases of this variety in Lithuania, but so far its spread is small.

“There is probably more than one case in Lithuania. Only that one could be identified. But since we did enough sequencing of samples with Santara Clinics and Thermo Fisher Scientific in December, the prevalence is still very low. Because we would have found that option,” he said.

The virologist assured that there are probably not many cases of this type. And this was helped by the strict quarantine that prevented this variety from spreading.

“It just came to our notice then. But it shows what everyone suspected: that the variety has reached Lithuania. Right while we are in quarantine, these varieties are not like spreading too much. That is good, but we must be determined that monitoring will be necessary. the increase in cases of this variety also ”, said I. Olendraitė.

The virologist claimed that the authorities, unaware of the confirmed case of the new variety in Lithuania, promised to release the quarantine very carefully.

Even if they hadn’t found this case, they all had in mind that it’s probably in Lithuania. We just might not have enough to detect, that’s been taken into account all along. It doesn’t change much, but now you know for sure that yes, “he said.

I. Olendraitė had more information about this case in the program “Delfi rytas”.

“A person infected with this new variety did not travel anywhere and did not come into contact with travelers. This shows that this variety really exists and extends within Lithuania. These quarantine releases are fun to do, but they will be done very carefully, maybe even slower than most would like, “I. Olendraitė said on” Delfi rytas “on Tuesday.

I. Olendraitė, a PhD student in virology and bioinformatics at the University of Cambridge, said that the population needs to know something basic about the new coronavirus strain registered in the United Kingdom: it is spreading 70 percent more.

“So not meeting a friend is 70 percent more important,” the virologist told the show.

He said limited contact with the UK had slowed the spread of the virus.

“If we hadn’t closed, then maybe now all the samples would be with a newer variety. These closures are very useful when the pandemic is in its infancy. (…) When everything is so widespread, we only delay the arrival of more problematic variants for us, ”said virologist I. Olendraitė.