Brazilone of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic COVID-19 in the world, confirmed this Thursday the first infection by the new subvariant of omicronknown as omicron VEHICLE and originally identified in the UK in mid-January, official sources reported.
According to the Ministry of Health, the new variant, which is a combination of the omicron original and the subvariante ómicron BA.2was identified the day before in a genetic examination of a patient’s sample carried out by the Butantan Institute of Sao Paulo and confirmed by the health authorities this Thursday.
“The portfolio maintains constant monitoring of the epidemiological scenario of the COVID-19 and reinforces the importance of the complete vaccination schedule to guarantee maximum protection against the virus and prevent the advance of new variants in the country,” the Ministry said in a statement.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the recombinante XE It was detected for the first time on January 19 in the United Kingdom, which already has more than 700 cases of the new subvariant, and the first tests showed that it could be more transmissible.
Balance of COVID-19 in Brazil
With about 212 million inhabitants, Brazil It is the second country in the world with the highest number of deaths from COVID-19with 660,973 fatalities, and the third with the most infected, which already exceeds 30 million, although the rate of contagion has been losing strength for several weeks.
Only on the day of this Thursday, Brazil registered 250 new deaths and 26,502 new cases of the disease, figures well below the record of 4,249 deaths and 298,408 daily infections registered, respectively, in April 2021 and February 2022.
The expressive slowdown of the pandemic in the country is attributed to the success of the immunization campaign, which has allowed more than 75% of the Brazilian population to complete the vaccination cycle.
(With information from EFE)