17 cases with new virus variant from UK

The British virus variant known as VOC202012 / 01 has been circulating in the UK since September. This variant is believed to increase the potential for transmission, but there are currently no signs that it can cause serious illness.

Late last year, the virus was detected in Sweden. A total of 17 cases have now been confirmed in the country: a direct link for 12 trips and a link for 5 trips have not yet been made.

– We expect this variation to appear at a lower level in the country. We have no indication that there will be a widespread social spread, but there will certainly be some clusters and chains of epidemics with this variation. Karin Techmark Weisel, head of the Swedish Public Health Organization, said in a joint statement on Thursday that it was important to detect them later and control the spread of the disease. Press conference.

The whole genetic sequencing is certainly done in only a small part of the samples in Sweden, which is about 1 percent. But Karin Techmark Weisel pointed out that in some regions it is possible to screen out possible occurrences of a new virus variant and then make a complete genetic sequence.

According to Wettenskopradian, Denmark makes this kind of detailed sequencing on 11 percent of samples. Even in Sweden, the number, which is currently very moderate, is likely to increase.

– We now plan to increase the starting lineup of vaccines. Karin Techmark Weisel said that about 10 percent of us have a reasonable target position when we have such extensive cases.

In addition to the 17 cases of the British variant, one case of the South African variant of the virus has been reported. It is associated with a journey, and like the British variant, the mutation is highly contagious, but does not yet lead to serious disease.

In total, Sweden has passed 480,000 cases related to Govt-19. The event of the last 14 days shows 725 cases per 100,000 people. This compares with Europe’s worst-affected Lithuania in 1,300 cases (weeks 51-52). However, data on major holidays are uncertain and the number of samples has been declining recently, so the Swedish Public Health Agency expects the number of actual infections to be slightly higher.

The number of new IVA cases is about 30 a day. Nearly 600 of the country’s more than 760 IVA locations are occupied. Of these patients, 387 were maintained for Govit-19.

Lakartidningen.se 2021-01-07