A Brazilian mutation of the coronavirus has also appeared in Romania, the Institute of Public Health (INSP) said on Monday, a few days after a healthcare provider also detected a South African virus variant in two Romanian patients.
The INSP was informed by the Matei Bals Epidemiological Hospital in the capital that it had detected a Brazilian mutation in SarsCov2 virus P.1 in two patients in Bucharest with coronavirus symptoms who were also suffering from other diseases. One is a 38-year-old man who has not been abroad and who does not know where he became infected, and the other is a 57-year-old man whose other two colleagues were also infected, so it can be assumed that he received the disease from them. The epidemiological investigation is still ongoing.
In Romania, the spread of new, more contagious viral mutations in the community is attributed to the resurgence of the epidemic in recent weeks. Experts unanimously assume that the British virus variant is already spreading across the country at the community level and has become dominant in Romania’s major cities. However, they do not have accurate data on this, because only a few laboratories carry out so-called sequential testing on a random basis, which is suitable for detecting new variants.
The British virus variant B.1.1.7 has so far been identified in 272 patients in Romania. In the last 72 cases, the MedLife network of private clinics showed more than 77 percent hit rate after a more in-depth analysis of 93 randomly selected coronavirus tests.
The first Brazilian virus mutant has also been identified in Austria
The first Brazilian virus mutant was identified in Salzburg, Austria, on Monday, the Austrian daily Der Standard reported.
The suspicion had already arisen in the man’s positive coronavirus test two weeks ago, so the sample was further examined and it was confirmed on Monday that he was the first Austrian to be infected with the Brazilian virus. It was not clear where he could have contracted the disease, the man had not been abroad, and he had not met anyone who might have returned to this mutant on leave.
The isolation of the infected man was extended and everyone he met was placed under house quarantine. The authorities are not aware of any further cases.
“Those infected with the Brazilian mutant have the potential for re-infection, and it is not even clear how effective the different vaccines are against this variant of the coronavirus.” – said Hans Georg Mustafa, Head of the Medilab Laboratory in Salzburg, in connection with the case.
The city of Salzburg has also announced that it will increase the period of officially ordered quarantine from the previous 10 days to 14. “Although we managed to completely isolate the person infected with the Brazilian mutant, the dominant presence of the British mutant, which already accounts for more than 80 percent of all infections, is a cause for concern,” explained Petra Juhász, director of the provincial public health authority.
Meanwhile, in Tyrol, the proportion of South African virus mutants among active infections continued to decline. While more than 200 such cases were recorded two weeks ago, only 64 of a total of 1382 coronavirus cases were registered on Monday.
In Austria, 1,910 people have been newly diagnosed with the virus in the last 24 hours, and 476,980 positive cases have been registered since the outbreak began. The number of hospitalized people with coronavirus disease is 1,522, and the number of people in need of intensive care is 331. 19 people died of the complications of the disease caused by the infection in the past day, bringing the death toll from the epidemic to 8,732. The number of people who recovered from the disease was 445,032.
MTI
