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Globe Live Media, Thursday, January 28, 2021
The Galician Health Service (Sergas) has reported the first infection with the South African variant of the coronavirus in Spain. The victim, a 30-year-old man living in Vigo, was recently in the country for work reasons.
Thus, Galicia has become the first autonomous community to register a contagion by one of the new variants of the virus, B.1.351, which was detected on December 18 in South Africa for the first time.
The citizen had moved to the country in the south of the African continent as a result of his work activity, related to the naval industry. Upon returning to Spain, he began to develop symptoms compatible with a coronavirus infection. For this reason, the Preventive Medicine service, led by Dr. Víctor del Campo, decided to sequence the virus in the laboratories of the Meixoeiro hospital. It was on January 5 when the positive was reported to the international GISAID registry, as reported by the Board of Galicia.
“This detection highlights the capacity of the Galician health system to carry out complete and sophisticated analyzes of the virus. In addition, it will contribute to a correct identification and better epidemiological control. Since we have discovered that Galicia can be one of the entry routes, it will be necessary to monitor the ports and the arrival of travelers to our borders “, has explained the head of the Microbiology service, Benito Regueiro.
🧪 Galicia, the first autonomous community to detect the presence of the South African strain in Spain
🔬 Beyond the international scientific recognition it represents for Galician Public Health, it helps to identify and epidemiologically control the virus
🔗 https://t.co/fEfjOZgLsI pic.twitter.com/X30IlMfmg7
– Xunta de Galicia (@Xunta) January 28, 2021
What do we know about the South African variant?
Scientists suspect that the South African variant has a higher transmission capacity than the coronavirus. But, at the moment, there is no evidence that it is more virulent. Currently, more than 10 countries have reported the presence of this variant on their borders.
Fortunately, Modern pharmaceutical company has reported that its vaccine is effective against this variant of the virus.