Portugal registers 38 cases of increasing average of the Delta variant of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom – Society
Portugal registers 38 cases of disconnection of the Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which has increased in the United Kingdom, maintaining its greater circulation in the Algarve, where 25 cases were detected, indicates information released this Tuesday by the INSA.
According to the weekly report on the genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2, which causes the covid-19 disease, prepared by the National Health Institute Dr. Ricardo Jorge (INSA), there was an increase in the circulation of this forcing in Portugal to from week 42 (October 18th to 24th), revealing a related frequency that tends to increase from 1.8% (week 42) to 2.9% in week 44 (November 1st to 7th, provisional value).
In total, 38 cases associated with this superiority have been detected so far, which has aroused particular interest in the international community due to its growing prevalence in the United Kingdom.
The INSA said that in weeks 42 and 43 (between 18 and 31 October) there was a relative frequency of 100% and 99.8%, respectively, for the Delta variant, determined to be detected in India and considered to be more transmissible.
In the week from 1st to 7th of November, despite the Delta variant presenting a relative frequency of 100%, this value is provisional as the data is still being calculated, the report emphasizes.
The only “non-Delta” sequence detected in the week of 18-31 October referred to a case, detected in the Northern Region, associated with the ‘Mu’ variant, “with great expansion in Colombia”.
The 11,442 Delta sequences analyzed in Portugal to date are divided into almost 100 completions, as a result of the recent update of the nomenclature, which affects “greater discrimination of the analyzed sequences”, refers the INSA report.
“From this continuous monitoring, the current circulation of several currents of the Delta variant in Portugal stands out, with 27 of these being detected consecutively in the last three weeks or in the current week under analysis”, he adds.
The report also refers that no case associated with the Gamma variant was detected, determined in Manaus, Brazil, since a week 37 (September 13th to 19th), a situation similar to the Beta variant, originating in South Africa, which is not detected from week 29 (July 19th to 25th).
The INSA developed since April 2020 the “Study of the genetic diversity of the new SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus in Portugal”, which aims to identify and monitor transmission chains, as well as identify new introductions of the virus in Portugal.
To date, 20,923 sequences of the genome of the new coronavirus have been analyzed, corrected from those collected in more than 100 laboratories, hospitals and institutions in the country, representing 303 municipalities in Portugal.
Covid-19 has killed 18,274 people in Portugal and 1,110,155 cases of infection have been recorded, according to data from the Directorate-General for Health.