Germany is the latest country to discover a new variant that has been identified in a group of hospital patients in Bavaria. An unknown variant of the virus has been discovered in 35 patients at a hospital in the second largest city of Bremen in Germany. Further tests on viral samples from patients show that it is the same variant as the original variant.
Germany is the latest country to discover a new variant that has been detected in a group of hospital patients in Bavaria. Local media first reported Monday that an unknown variant of the coronavirus had been discovered in 35 patients at a hospital in Bremen’s second-largest city.
The Bavarian news channel BR24 reported Monday that the virus had been found in blood samples of the newly infected. The German Ministry of Health has since been contacted by CNBC to confirm the report and samples are now being examined at the Charité in Berlin.
The variant is similar to variants discovered in Britain and South Africa, they said, but not as severe as the recently discovered variant. There is no evidence yet that the mutation has found its way into the blood of patients, Dr. Clemens Stockklausner, chief physician of the Charité in Berlin, said at a press conference on Monday. We are waiting for full sequencing, but at the moment we have discovered a small point mutation and it is absolutely unclear whether it will be clinically relevant or not, “said Stockk Klausner.
In the UK and Ireland in particular, the mutated virus has spread rapidly, causing an increase in infections, and hospitals are struggling with an influx of patients. British and South African variants caused more deaths last week because the mutation is easy to spread, according to a report in The New York Times.
Information about the new variant found in Germany came to light on the same day that Health Minister Jens Spahn declared that the current sequencing of the coronavirus in the country was insufficient and that laboratories would be obliged and compensated to sequence Coronaveirus samples to check them for virus mutations. According to the WHO, a handful of other countries are known to have coronvirus mutations, including the UK and South Africa.
Infection rates in Germany remain worrying: up to Tuesday, the Robert Koch Institute reported 11,369 daily cases. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was greeted by 16 prime ministers from across the country to discuss whether to tighten or extend the closure, which expires on January 31. The WHO told CNBC last week: “We need a more precise crisis mode here in Germany to fight this pandemic and we are very concerned about the number of infections. We are currently seeing a much higher rate of coronavirus infections in the UK and Ireland than in the United States.
This brings the total number of cases to almost two million and the death toll, according to the WHO, stands at 47,622.
We need eight to ten weeks of tough measures, “he told Bild newspaper. Like other European countries, Germany is trying to prevent the spread of other infectious strains of the virus found in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Spahn insisted Monday that the coronavirus mutation discovered in England should not be called the “English variant.” English version, we talk about it in the same way that we didn’t talk about the Chinese virus last year, “he said, according to Reuters.
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