The British coronavirus variant B.1.1.7 remains the most prevalent one in Luxembourg, making up 74.1% of cases. The latest weekly review, which was published by the National Health Laboratory on Wednesday, further indicates that the South African variant B.1.351 represents 19.4% of cases, more or less the same value as during the previous week. However, the report also revealed that six cases of the Brazilian variant occurred within seven days.
Up until now, isolated cases of the mutation occurred sporadically, like in the week from 8 to 14 March. While France already took steps to limit the potential exposure to the P1 variant on Tuesday evening, Luxembourgish health officials continue to monitor the evolution. At this moment, they do not yet consider banning travel to or from Brasil. The Ministry of Health has indicated that there is little evidence the variant is only brought to Europe from South America.
According to Natalia Pasternak, microbiologist and director of the Questoes de Ciencia Institute, fears over the new Covid-19 mutation are “justified, since it is highly contagious and managed to quickly spread across a country as enormous as Brasil.”
The P1 mutation first emerged near the Brazilian city Manaus in December last year, but was only recognised as a Covid-19 variant in January, when travellers brought it to Japan.
Like the South African variant, P1 is thus considered to cause more infections within a short period of time, and a greater number of antibodies is needed to resist it.
P1 has already spread across all of Brasil, although the country currently being overrun with new cases has trouble following up on its data reports. Unsurprisingly, no conclusive study on the mutation’s mortality rate has yet been published. The elevated rate in Brasil may also be linked to the over-saturation of hospitals, which is difficult to assess at this point.
The only positive news so far concern the efficacy of vaccines. According to preliminary research, the Chinese vaccine CoronaVac, which is the type most used in Brasil, is able to deal with the mutation. The same goes for the Pfizer/BionTech jab and the one from AstraZeneca.
