MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian scientists trace more transmissible COVID-19 strains

Fiocruz also confirmed cases of coinfection by Sars-CoV-2 and influenza viruses

Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro has identified, by genomic analysis, the replacement of strain BA.1 by strain BA.2 in samples analyzed between May 20 and June 2. Both are subvariants of Omicron.

In addition, Fiocruz identified in the period increased detection between May and June of the BA.4, BA.5, and BA.2.12.1 strains, which have genomic characteristics that may lead to greater viral transmissibility.

Data are computed weekly in the Technology Platform Network with data sourced from the EpiCoV Platform of the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (Gisaid), an international platform for sharing genomic data of influenza viruses and Sars-CoV-2.

The update from the Fiocruz Genomics Network shows the genomic characterization of seven cases confirmed by RT-PCR of coinfection by Sars-CoV-2 and influenza viruses and also 69 cases of reinfection, 48 of which were associated with Omicron reinfection.

The BA.1 variant was responsible for the COVID-19 outbreak in the country that occurred between December 2021 and January 2022. BA.2 has been gaining ground not only in Brazil but also in other countries. The BA.4 and BA.5 strains seem to spread even faster than previous Omicron mutations.

The Fiocruz Genomics Network has already produced and sent to the surveillance agencies and state laboratories a total of 709 reports, which contained 45,657 genomes. The work is done by the Respiratory Viruses and Measles Laboratory of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (IOC/Fiocruz), in Rio de Janeiro, and the member laboratories of the Fiocruz Genomic Network in seven other states: Amazonas, Bahia, Ceará, Minas Gerais, Piauí, Paraná and Pernambuco. These eight monitoring centers serve the 26 states and the Federal District.

To date, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized ten variants for priority monitoring, classificated into four categories: variants of concern (VOC), variants of interest (VOI), variants under monitoring (VUM), and lineages of variants of concern under monitoring (VOC-LUM). Only the Omicron and Delta VOCs are in circulation.

Brazilian state and municipal health authorities have registered 40,173 new cases of COVID-19in the last 24 hours, while 70 deaths from complications associated with the disease were also confirmed.

The data are in the Ministry of Health update released on Monday (13), with Mato Grosso data still pending, despite which the total number of people infected by the new coronavirus during the pandemic reached 31,497,038.

The number of cases in follow-up stands at 609,622. The term is given to cases reported in the last 14 days that have neither been discharged nor resulted in death.

With Monday's figures, the total number of deaths has reached 668,180. There are still 3,221 deaths under investigation. The occurrences involve cases in which the patient died, but the investigation of whether the cause was COVID-19 still requires additional procedures.

So far, 30,219,236 people have recovered from COVID-19. The number corresponds to 97% of those infected since the pandemic began.

On Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays, the daily recorded number tends to be lower due to the difficulty of feeding the databases by the municipal and state health departments. On Tuesdays, the quantity, in general, is higher due to the update of cases accumulated over the weekends.

According to the Ministry of Health, 441,542,921 doses of vaccine against COVID-19 were applied, with 177.3 million as the first dose, 159.8 million as the second dose, and 4.9 million as a single dose. Another 89.3 million people received the booster dose, 6.2 million got a fourth dose of the vaccine, and 4 million received the additional dose.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)