It was on January 8 that SVT Nyheter Norrbotten was able to report on the first case of the mutated virus.
- The risk that this infection will have spread in the county from the current case is low.
This is a small, symptom-free child and young children tend to be low-grade infectious, Anders Nystedt, infection control doctor, told SVT Nyheter on January 8.
Looking primarily among travelers
17 days later, the risk assessment appears to have been correct.
But it is not entirely easy to track.
- So far we have only the Christmas week fall.
But you can only find this virus strain if you look, and those we look for are primarily travelers, he says.
Has increased the pace
The Norrbotten region, just like the rest of Sweden, has stepped up the search to find other tribes.
According to Nystedt, the Swedish Public Health Agency has found a handful of cases with the tribe that lack travel in history.
- Should there be an outbreak that seems to have been caused by a very spread-prone strain, the responsible doctor will reason via the lab with FHM about a possible sequencing.
Such have been done but without findings.
- I know that samples have been sent from individual patients for whole genome sequencing (typing), but no deviating strain has been found, says Nystedt.
Whole genome sequencing involves mapping the virus' genome.
Sent strains for analysis
Eastern Norrbotten was recently hit by a major outbreak and strains have also been sent there for analysis.
- But there we have not received an answer yet.