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The Ministry of Health has admitted that there is "a real possibility" that the British variant of the coronavirus, already present in 14 communities, could be more serious and lethal and has warned that it could lead to an increase in incidence and, with it, of hospitalizations and fatality "in the coming weeks."

This is stated in the latest update of the document "Circulation of VOC 202012/01 (B.1.1.7) and other variants of SARS-CoV-2 of interest to public health in Spain", in which it recalls that the British is associated to a greater capacity of the virus to be transmitted, "which may be associated with a higher incidence of the disease in places where it circulates widely and prevention measures are not strictly applied."

The document, prepared by the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES), indicates that

until this Friday more than 400 cases have been reported in 14 communities

: Madrid, Andalusia, Cantabria, Balearic Islands, Valencian Community, Asturias, Murcia, Castilla -La Mancha, Castilla y León, Basque Country, Galicia, Extremadura, Navarra, and Catalonia.

It does not specify how many cases, but on Thursday, the director of the CCAES, Fernando Simón, estimated at 449 those confirmed and warned that there are another 55 under study and there could be more that have not been notified.

At first, most of those detected were epidemiologically related to the United Kingdom, but now several communities have reported cases in which an epidemiological link could not be established.

According to the report, the distribution of this variant "is highly variable", so that the estimated prevalence in week 4 of 2021 is 20.3% in the Balearic Islands, 0.4% in Castilla-La Mancha, 53.3% in Galicia or 4% in the Basque Country.

However, it concludes that its presence "is increasing rapidly", which "may condition an increase in the incidence and possibly the rate of hospitalization and fatality in our country in the coming weeks."

"In addition,

there is a real possibility that it could be related to greater severity and greater lethality

. The risk of a progressive increase in hospitalizations associated with the increasing circulation of the variant is therefore high, both due to the increase of the incidence as by the increase of the gravity ", abounds.

Although B.1.1.7 was not initially associated with changes in the severity of the disease, Health comes to this conclusion after echoing

more recent studies from the United Kingdom

that suggest that it could be associated with an increase in fatality in all age groups.

However, there is also evidence that it does not affect the ability to neutralize antibodies in people immunized with complete vaccination schedules, "so it is likely that the estimated efficacy of the different currently available vaccines will be maintained."

The new update confirms the existence of two cases of the South African and none of the Brazilian, although it has been carried out before the Community of Madrid has confirmed the first case of the latter in our country.

Regarding the first, he explains that "there is no evidence of greater virulence", although some studies show a decrease in the neutralization capacity of sera from convalescent patients, "for which he is concerned that it may produce a greater number of reinfections or partially reduce the efficacy of vaccines ".

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Know more

  • Coronavirus

  • UK

  • Madrid

  • Balearics

  • Galicia

  • Castilla la Mancha

  • Basque Country

  • Madrid's community

  • Fernando Simon

  • Catalonia

  • Navarre

  • Estremadura

  • Castile and Leon

  • Murcia

  • Asturias

  • Valencian Community

  • Cantabria

  • Andalusia

  • Spain

  • Covid 19

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