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The virus mutation was discovered in the UK in September. In London, it now accounts for 62 percent of detected coronaviruses. Only on Saturday was Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced at a press conference.
– They should have alerted earlier, says Björn Olsen, chief physician and professor of infectious diseases at Uppsala University.
The public health authority still has So far the virus mutation has not been discovered in Sweden, although it cannot be ruled out, but Björn Olsen says:
– We can almost be sure that we have it in Sweden even now. The traffic has been so long between London and Sweden that the virus has certainly reached here. That wouldn’t surprise me at all. Quite the contrary. I would be very surprised if we didn’t have that variant in Sweden.
Sweden’s former state epidemiologist, virologist Annika Linde, agrees.
– We’re not sure. But since the mutation has been around for a while and there have been some travelers between countries who have discovered that the virus mutation exists, I consider it likely rather than unlikely, he says.
– But so far I think we know too little to be able to express ourselves with any kind of certainty about what it really means. It is important that these swift measures have been taken which, after all, the government has now taken pending further information. The important thing is to be careful until we know more.
Both Annika Linde and Björn Olsen However, it is critical that passengers on Monday’s flights from the UK, before the government introduced a travel ban from the country and halted flights, were not allowed to test themselves at airports.
According to the Swedish Public Health Agency, they should be tested at home, quarantined for at least seven days, and retested on the fifth day.
– I think they should have tested those who came with planes from the UK directly to the scene, especially to quickly meet someone who discovered the mutated virus, says Annika Linde.
– We should have done tests at the airport, rented hotels and quarantined people until it was clear whether they had this variant of the virus or not, says Björn Olsen.
The Public Health Agency’s response – that they don’t want those kinds of people at airports and that it’s safer to ask for isolation and testing at home – Björn Olsen doesn’t give much for it.
– Would it be less uncertain if people went home and did whatever they wanted? It is better to apply the precautionary principle, as many other countries do.
When asked if there is a risk that the new virus mutation will spread in Sweden, he says:
– Absolutely can, if it is introduced into Sweden and has a higher infectivity than the usual variant, if we do not have time to deal with it with a vaccine. You don’t need to start the machinery yet, but you definitely need to take that into account. If we have the virus in Sweden now, it can get complicated early next year and put a lot of pressure on the health system.
The coronavirus was previously thought to have mutated thousands of times, but not in a drastic way that changed its function.
According to British researchers, the new form of virus may be up to 70 percent more contagious than before, but emphasizes that these are preliminary conclusions and that it is not known how contagious it is. The Public Health Agency says more British tests are underway.
Currently, there is no evidence that the virus mutation causes more serious disease than previous variants or that the vaccine works worse.
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