Brazil detects a new variant of COVID-19 that combines 18 mutations and that would be more contagious

A group of scientists from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (southeast of Brazil) detected a new variant of the coronavirus COVID-19 in the regional capital, Belo Horizonte, with 18 mutations compared to the original.

Some of these alterations are the same that appear in the other Brazilian variant, which arose in the state of Amazonas (north) and known as P.1, as well as in those of the United Kingdom and South Africa, all of them associated with a greater power of infection .

Preliminary research suggests that this new lineage could also be more transmissible and would already be widespread in Belo Horizonte and in other cities of Minas Gerais, which this Wednesday once again recorded a new daily record of deaths associated with covid-19, with 508 deaths in the last 24 hours.

For his part, the president of Brazil, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, complained this Wednesday in an official act that the pandemic is being used for political purposes, not to defeat the coronavirus, but to “destroy” him and his government.

Since the beginning of the health crisis, the president Jair Bolsonaro He has scorned the severity of the COVID-19, which he described as “flu,” censured the use of masks and defended treatments with drugs whose efficacy against this disease has not been proven, such as chloroquine.

He was also resigned to the inexorable spread of infections in the country and stated that “the virus will not go away” and that “it is practically impossible to eradicate it.”

Almost 4,000 dead

Brazil reported 3,829 new deaths associated with the coronavirus and has already accumulated 340,776 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, which is in its worst phase in the country, according to data released this Wednesday by the Government.

In the last two days, the country has added 8,024 fatalities linked to the new coronavirus, after surpassing the barrier of 4,000 daily deaths for the first time the day before (4,195).

The Ministry of Health registered 92,625 infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the total balance to 13,193,205 infected, although the scientific community estimates that this figure may be two to three times higher due to the enormous under-notification .

Brazil It is the second country with the most deaths and confirmed cases of the disease, only behind the United States, although it is currently the place on the planet where the most deaths from covid-19, with an average in the last week that exceeded 2,700 deaths newspapers.

The unbridled circulation of coronavirus in this country of 210 million people, it has brought the public health system to the brink of collapse.

According to the latest newsletter from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), a leading medical research center in Latin America, 20 of the 27 Brazilian states have an occupancy rate of their intensive care units higher than 90%, due to the exponential growth of the coronavirus income.