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The new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus identified in the United Kingdom, presented as the most contagious and disrupting the world, is already circulating in several countries and territories, within and outside Europe. based on the latest information.
Belgium, Gibraltar (British territory located in the extreme south of Spain and claimed by Madrid), Denmark and Australia are the most recent countries and territories where the new variant of the coronavirus responsible for the covid-19 disease has been identified, whose presence had already been previously confirmed. in the Netherlands, Italy or South Africa.
Belgium announced this Monday that it had detected the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the country, specifying that it has been circulating in Belgian territory for at least a month.
“This variant is not limited to the United Kingdom, it has already been detected in other parts of the world, including the Netherlands and Belgium,” said the spokesman for the Belgian technical team in charge of combating covid-19, virologist Yves Van Laethem.
The specialist stated that to date “there are four known cases in Belgium” and that the detection “was made a month ago.”
“It is possible that there are more cases circulating in our country and in other continental European countries,” added Van Laethem.
The virologist recalled that this variant of SARS-CoV-2 has been known “since September” and that it currently represents “60% of new infections in the United Kingdom”.
“There are other strains that circulate in our country and in other countries (…). It is totally normal that the variants appear” and that “they end up becoming dominant,” continued the expert, highlighting that, so far, it is not Totally tested if this strain is transmitted more easily.
“We still have to wait to have a certain amount of data to see if it really is more contagious,” Yves Van Laethem said.
“In any case, nothing shows us that it is more violent, more aggressive or more dangerous to our health. Nothing shows us that vaccines will not give us immunity against the covid-19 disease marked by this variant,” added the Belgian virologist.
The specialist goes further and manages to justify the fact that this new strain was identified in the United Kingdom.
According to Yves Van Laethem, the UK has “one of the most efficient and comprehensive genetic surveillance and research programs in the world”, allowing the British to “systematically analyze 5-10% of samples to determine their composition genetics”.
“Many other countries are much more limited in the percentage of samples that they study in depth,” said the Belgian virologist, noting that the UK is not the only country where there is a significant increase in new infections.
The Netherlands, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were some of the countries mentioned by Yves Van Laethem, who recommended, however, that travel be reduced and limited “as much as possible”.
At least one case of infection related to the new strain has been detected in Gibraltar, a Downing Street spokesman (the office of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson) confirmed today.
“Cases have been detected in Gibraltar, Denmark and Australia,” the Downing Street spokesman said, in statements to the Spanish news agency EFE.
For his part, the French Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, said today that “so far” this new strain has not been identified in France.
“In the last few days, scientists have analyzed 500 viral strains and this variant has not been found. This does not mean that it is not circulating,” Olivier Véran told Europa 1.
Although so far no cases have been detected, the French Minister of Health admitted that “it is quite possible that the variant is already circulating” in France.
Faced with this possibility, French President Emmanuel Macron, who was diagnosed with covid-19 last week, called for a strengthening of “surveillance.”
In Portugal, the new strain of SARS-CoV-2 has so far not been identified, an official source from the Ricardo Jorge Institute told Lusa on Sunday.
After the identification of this new variant of SARS-CoV-2, several countries, inside and outside Europe, decided to suspend connections, specifically air, with the United Kingdom, a list that has been growing in recent hours.
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