{"id":255400,"date":"2021-05-21T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T09:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/brazil-confirms-first-cases-of-indian-covid-variant\/"},"modified":"2021-05-21T12:00:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T09:00:41","slug":"brazil-confirms-first-cases-of-indian-covid-variant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/brazil-confirms-first-cases-of-indian-covid-variant\/","title":{"rendered":"#Brazil confirms first cases of Indian COVID variant"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Brazil confirms first cases of Indian COVID variant<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Brazil has detected its first six cases of the so-called Indian variant of the COVID-19 virus, in crew members who arrived aboard a Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship, officials said Thursday.\n <\/p>\n

Tests “identified the B.1.617.2 variant of the COVID-19 virus in samples taken from crew of the MV Shandong Da Zhi,” which arrived from South Africa, the health ministry for the northeastern state of Maranhao said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“In all, 15 crew members tested positive for COVID-19 and nine negative. Of the six samples with the highest viral load sent for genetic sequencing, all came back positive for B.1.617.2.”<\/p>\n

The 360-meter ore carrier is currently in quarantine, anchored off Brazil’s coast.<\/p>\n

Brazilian health officials have instructed the crew to isolate themselves in their cabins.<\/p>\n

But three with serious symptoms were taken ashore for treatment.<\/p>\n

Two have since returned to the ship, while one is in intensive care in the state capital, Sao Luis, the ministry said.<\/p>\n

“At this point, no local transmission of the Indian variant has been identified,” it said.<\/p>\n

All health professionals who have had direct or indirect contact with the patients are being tested and monitored, it said.<\/p>\n

“We are going to fully trace everyone, around 100 people in all,” state health secretary Carlos Lula told journalists.<\/p>\n

“Not everyone had contact with them, but we have to be sure.”<\/p>\n

Brazil is already struggling with one of the world’s deadliest outbreaks of COVID-19\u2014fueled in part, experts say, by the so-called Brazil variant, which emerged around the Amazon rainforest city of Manaus in November and can re-infect people who have had the original strain of the virus.<\/p>\n

Like that lineage, the mutation first spotted in India has been dubbed a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization. Scientists say both may be more dangerous than the original strain.<\/p>\n

Since the Indian variant was first reported in October 2020, COVID-19 has battered India, which has now reported nearly 290,000 deaths and more than 25 million infections in all.<\/p>\n

The variant has been detected in more than 40 countries.<\/p>\n

Brazil has meanwhile recorded more than 440,000 COVID-19 deaths and 15 million infections.<\/p>\n

Only the United States has suffered more deaths and infections in the pandemic than the two countries.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Follow the latest news<\/a> on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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\n Brazil confirms first cases of Indian COVID variant (2021, May 21)
\n retrieved 21 May 2021
\n from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2021-05-brazil-cases-indian-covid-variant.html<\/p>\n

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