A version of the Covid-19 Indian strain, other than the one that would have prompted the sanitary crisis in India, has been identified in Romania, within a coronavirus outbreak in Brasov county. Five people arrived from India tested positive for coronavirus, with the new version detected. The five Indians are working on a construction site in Bod Colony.
“It is a group of workers from India. They arrived in Romania on April 13, they passed all tests, so they tested negative, they had no symptoms. One of the person wanted to return to India due to a personal issue and he was tested again and it was then when the virus was identified. Considering his origin country, a genome sequencing was required and was conducted at a lab in Sfantu Gheorghe, with the result raising the suspicion for the Indian strain. All contacts were tested and quarantined. Out of eight workers from India, five tested positive and were placed under quarantine in individual dwellings to prevent transmission,” the director of Brasov Public Health direction told Digi 24.
She added that the lab that had detected the India strain had asked, in its turn, further tests for a new confirmation, to establish 100% the existence of this SARS-CoV-2 version.
According to the National Institute of Public Health, an Indian strain, B.1.617.2, of the novel coronavirus was identified in a 26-year-old person, who arrived in Romania a month ago.
The coordinator of the national vaccination campaign, doctor Valeriu Gheorghiță, said that there no reasons to worry about the version of Indian strain detected in Romania. He explained that, although it can reduce the neutralizing activity of the antibodies resulted from the vaccination, this mutation cannot mitigate the efficiency of the vaccines.
Gheorghiță urged people to continue to get vaccinated against COVID-19, as the vaccine is the way to curb the risk of virus mutations.
