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Alexandru Rafila, Romania’s representative to the WHO, said on Monday that the new strain of coronavirus, identified in the UK and which would increase infectivity by about 70%, can be detected by PCR testing when found. The PSD deputy specified that the vaccines should act against him, at least “theoretically”, and attacked the Government: if the vaccination campaign will be fast enough.
“If it has been identified, it can be isolated,” Alexandru Rafila said of the person from Italy who was identified with the coronavirus mutation discovered in Britain.
“It is not necessarily a new strain, it has been circulating since September 20, when it was the first patient diagnosed and identified, so at this time this strain is quite well known,” he added.
“It remains to be seen if the vaccination campaign will be fast enough to stop the excessive transmission. Because, in the end, that is the problem,” Alexandru Rafila also said.
He replied that “theoretically” anti-COVID vaccines will also work against this new strain: “There is no evidence that neutralizing antibodies against circulating viruses at this time, including this strain, is not effective. But as it is available to researchers since recently, it remains to be seen if the protective effect of the antibodies is still as good in the case of this strain ”, underlined the Romanian representative in the WHO.
He specified that the RT-PCR type test in Romania detects this strain: “Absolutely. It has nothing to do with PCR testing, because it identifies stable regions of the genome, not modified regions. The problem with this change is in the Spike protein, because it is this protein that identifies the cellular receptors on the basis of which it attaches itself and then internalizes. It has nothing to do with the diagnosis, it has to do with the spread. “
Publisher: GC
