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Sweden has introduced an entry ban from the UK and Denmark after a new variant of the coronavirus spread. The new mutation is described as even more contagious and, according to British figures, will make up the majority of all new cases in the country.
So far, no cases of the British variant have been discovered in Sweden. The hunt is underway in the Public Health Agency and in the regions of the country.
Infection control doctors from the Skåne Region tell DN that the regions collect virus strains from their local laboratories and send them to the Public Health Agency, where they are analyzed and “typed.”
– We are currently in the process of submitting strains from several ongoing outbreaks among Scanian patients to see if we have received a new strain of the virus, says infection control doctor Eva Melander.
The public health authority declares they have a continuous follow-up of new samples. Some of the virus tests already in use in regions today may indicate changes to the coronavirus which could be the highly contagious British variant.
– They give us a signal that something is happening, something strange. It may be the English variant, but it may also be other mutations, says Mia Brytting, manager of the authority’s vaccine and virus control unit.
Have you had such successes?
– Yes, they have sent us some samples with these indications and now we will analyze them to see if it is the English variant, or other mutations that caused it.
Mia Brytting from the Swedish Public Health Agency says that the British variant of the coronavirus can be detected through some of the virus tests already used for sampling in the regions.
Photo: Swedish Public Health Agency
The Public Health Agency is working in several ways to try to detect a possible spread of the British variant. The agency collects more samples than before from laboratories in the regions and also checks positive responses to samples taken by people who have been in the UK from November onwards.
– Information has been sent to all infection control doctors and all laboratories. But even the media attention means that all the doctors who have these cases will surely wonder “have you been to England?” Says Mia Brytting.
She can’t answer about how many samples are currently being tested for the British mutation, but he says it can take anywhere from a day to several days to get answers, depending on the technology used and how many samples are being tested.
– Basically we try to analyze 40 samples per day. We could sequence more, but that would mean that we would have to discontinue other diagnoses and we couldn’t because that would affect the diagnosis of other diseases that are also serious.
