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Berlin (dpa / bb) - Berlin's Charité University Hospital has expanded its corona tests and also checks positive samples for mutations.
The Charité announced on Wednesday.
The Charité Institute for Virology is currently responsible for this.
Labor Berlin, a joint subsidiary of Charité and Vivantes, will soon take over this task.
The goal is to get a continuous overview of the occurrence of coronavirus mutations in the samples.
If there is evidence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the sample is also checked for the English and South African virus variants.
Labor Berlin, together with the Charité, will begin this week with the additional testing of samples that have tested positive for the known mutations.
According to the Charité, the focus is currently on variant B.1.1.7, which is widespread in England, and the mutation B.1.351 found in South Africa, which are possibly more contagious than the previously known virus.
With the additional test, the rate of existing known mutations should be recorded.
According to the Charité, this can be used to determine whether the mutated viruses spread more efficiently than others.
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Press release