This Monday it was announced that the coronavirus variant identified in the UK has also been circulating in Belgium for at least a month, a country that joins the Netherlands and Italy, which also announced that they had detected this strain.
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“This variant is not limited to the United Kingdom, it has been detected in other places in the world; among others, in the Netherlands and Belgium,” Yves Van Laethem, spokesman for the technical team against the coronavirus, declared this Monday at a press conference.
“There are currently 4 known cases in Belgium and that detection was made a month ago (…). It is possible that there are more cases circulating in our country and in other countries of continental Europe, “added the virologist.
Van Laethem recalled that this mutation has been known “since September” and that it currently represents “60 percent of new infections in the United Kingdom.”
There are currently 4 known cases in Belgium and that detection was made a month ago
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“There are other variants that circulate in our country and other countries (…). It is totally normal that variants appear” and, “eventually, they become dominant,” added Van Laethem, who indicated that it is not known if the new variant will be it transmits more easily and “we still have to wait to have a certain amount of data to see if it really is more contagious”.
(Read here: Alarm in Europe: new strain accelerates covid transmission by 70%)
“In any case, nothing shows us that it is more violent, more aggressive or more dangerous to our health. Nothing shows us that prevents vaccines from giving us immunity against the covid marked with that variant“added the expert.
Van Laethem attributed the fact that the variant has been identified in the United Kingdom to the fact that that country has “one of the most efficient and comprehensive genetic surveillance and research programs in the world”, which it allows them to “systematically analyze 5 to 10 percent of the samples for their genetic makeup.”
“Many other countries are much more limited in the percentage of samples they study in depth,” said Van Laethem, who pointed out that the United Kingdom is not the only place where infections increase significantly, something that also occurs in the Netherlands, Denmark, Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Many other countries are much more limited in the percentage of samples that study in depth
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Italy detected this Sunday a first case of contagion with the new strain. In a statement released at night, the Ministry of Health specified that a patient infected by the new variant of covid-19 was identified in Italy at the Celio Military hospital in Rome.
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The patient had recently returned from the UK by plane and he and those close to him are in quarantine.
The mutation was also detected in the Netherlands in early December, now forcing the Dutch health authorities to investigate the affected person to determine who he was in contact with and where he was infected.
Schengen borders do not close
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The European Council, led by Charles Michel, announced that the borders of the Schengen area will be kept open.
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The countries of the European Union (EU) agreed on Monday to keep the internal borders of the Schengen area open after member states such as Germany, France, Italy or Belgium suspended their connections with the United Kingdom due to the new strain of coronavirus.
“Given the experience of the beginning of the pandemic, Member States (…) stressed the importance of keeping borders open within the Schengen area“reported the Council of the EU.
(Plus: The Drama of UK Travelers Trapped in Germany)
Technical advisers from the 27 EU countries held an urgent meeting of the crisis mechanism of the IPCR (Integrated Political Response to the Crisis, in its acronym in English) on Monday morning, which lasted for three hours.
AFP AND Efe
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