Brazilian scientists warn of mutations in new variants of coronavirus

Scientists from Brazil They warned in an article published this Monday that there may already be mutations of the new variants of coronavirus (COVID-19) that circulate in the country, which has become the global epicenter of the pandemic.

The article collects the results of a study carried out by specialists from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FioCruz), considered the largest scientific research center in Latin America, and says that “worrisome mutations” have been detected in five of the 27 states of Brazil: Amazonas, Bahia, Maranhao, Paraná and Rondonia.

“The continued widespread transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil is generating new viral lineages that may be more resistant to neutralization” than the previous variants, points out the report prepared by experts from FioCruz, which is based in Rio de Janeiro.

The article was published on the MedRxiv portal, specialized in medical information and clinical research, so that its data can be reviewed by scientists around the world.

The main conclusion of the article is that SARS-CoV-2 may be “Evolving towards the generation of new variants” that would be more transmissible and therefore more dangerous than the previous ones.

“We may be facing a natural process of evolution and adaptation (of the virus) to the scenario of an increase in the number of people with antibodies”, says the study.

The pandemic in Brazil has been in an uncontrolled phase for weeks, with a sharp increase in the number of deaths and infections, which in part has been attributed to the virulence of a new variant of COVID-19 arisen in the Amazon, known as P.1 and considered three times more infectious than the original.

According to the latest official data, released this Monday, in the last 24 hours, 1,383 deaths and 49,293 new cases were registered in the country, bringing the total number of deaths to 295,425, with more than 12 million infections.