The INSA investigator João Paulo Gomes said this Friday that the new variant of the coronavirus detected in South Africa is “a cause for concern, but not a reason for total alarm”, adding that no case has yet been identified. in Portugal.

Contacted by Lusa, the researcher at the National Health Institute Ricardo Jorge (INSA) said that this new strain is under study and has not yet been disclosed as a variant of interest or concern by international authorities, namely the World Health Organization (WHO) .

“It emerged in South Africa and it is thought that it may be associated with the high rate of positivity that is now reported in that country”, with some “sporadic cases” in neighboring countries, namely Botswana, said João Paulo Gomes. “We continue to do continuous surveillance of variants and until today we have never identified any case of infection associated with this strain.“, assured.

According to the microbiologist, it is a strain that worries the scientific community, because it stands out for the simultaneous presence of “an abnormal number of mutations in the protein of interest, a protein peak”. “Many of these mutations are in the zone of binding to our cells and others are mutations known to be associated with failure to bind to cells, so the problem with this new lineage is that it has many more of these mutations than the other variants that have worried us so far” , he explained.

He stressed, however, that it is not because of the simultaneous presence of these relevant mutations that it is “more transmissible or associated with vaccine failures”. “We have to give time. It is a cause for concern naturally, but it is not a reason for total alarm”, he considered. “It is important that the countries make their observation, attentive and ready and we are going to see to what extent it has an undesirable impact,” he added.

The expert also said that he agreed with the measure announced by the Government that those traveling to Portugal must submit a negative test, even if vaccinated, and recalled that some countries, namely the United Kingdom, “does not even allow flights originating in South Africa and of the set of neighboring countries to avoid any kind of introduction”.

João Paulo Gomes recalled that South Africa was once the incubator of a variant of concern, the Beta variant. which did not have a very strong spread throughout the world, it did not exceed 5%.

However, it is estimated to have accounted for around 90 to 95% of all cases of infection in South Africa.

“Now, obviously, given the kind of mutations this new strain has, the last thing we want is for it to spread to the rest of the world, so I think we have to be careful.”