RD is still waiting for the COVID sample results to determine if there are new variants

Dominican health officials are still waiting for the results of 120 new deployed COVID-19 samples sent to laboratories in Brazil and the United States earlier this month to determine the presence of new strains of the virus in the country.

This was stated by Ronald Skives, head of the National Directorate of Epidemiology, who said they would receive the results four weeks after the samples were sent.

“We have no results yet, the results have not yet reached us. Usually they take three to four weeks, but (waiting time) depends on the need for labs,” Skews explained to LISTÍN DIARIO last Saturday.

For this reason, the National Director of Epidemiology stressed that people should be patient while waiting.

Samples to be analyzed were collected in various provinces of the country and shipped last Thursday, June 3, during which recent studies confirmed that 24 varieties were already in circulation in the Dominican Republic of Schweiz.

These variants also included the United Kingdom and Brazil, which are variants of great concern because they may affect disease behavior.

In the country

The Brazilian variant found in the country is B1, which is considered a variant of the World Health Organization (WHO) “concern”.

The country’s health ministry said it could be three times more contagious than conventional COVID-19, causing a health crisis in most parts of the country between March and April, or more dangerous than the original disease.

“Fear is justified, P1 is a highly contagious variant and it spread so quickly in Brazil that it is a large country and not under epidemic control,” said Natalia Pasternak, director of microbiology at the Questavo Institute of Science. News agency in mid-April.

However, according to studies, P1 is not more dangerous than other variants.

According to British B.1.1.7, the Dominican Ministry of Public Health has promised that this will increase the severity of hospitalization and function as a function of mortality rates.

“It is not easily susceptible to monoclonal antibody treatments and has little effect on active and post-vaccine sera neutralization,” the company said.