The new variants detected in Venezuela entered through the borders with Colombia. (Photo: Getty Images).
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro informed the nation that COVID-19 cases with the British B.1.1.7 and Andean C.37 variants were detected in Venezuela.
“The British variant passed through the border in Apure, and near the Zulia border we have detected the Andean variant,” President Maduro said during the weekly report on the pandemic. “We did not know much about this one, but it is a variant that appeared in Chile, Peru, and Ecuador, and that is blowing up right now in Colombia.”
He held the Colombian health authorities responsible for a lack of measures to confront, control and mitigate infections in the neighboring country, which has generated favorable conditions for mutations and their transfer outside Colombian borders.
The Ministry of Popular Power of Science and Technology shared some information about these two new variants found in Venezuela:
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• The Andean and British variants of SARS-CoV-2 are potentially highly transmissible.
• The Andean variant has surpassed and displaced the dominant variants that were in circulation in Peru, according to scientific evidence from that country.
• Mutations occur spontaneously in these pathogens, and are part of their evolutionary strategy.
• The still encouraging news is that SARS-CoV-2 variants show varying degrees of receptivity to existing vaccines.
• Boosters of these vaccines based on earlier variants are already being generated.
“The COVAX initiative is indebted to Venezuela”
The head of state also confirmed that the payments to the COVAX mechanism of the World Health Organization have already been deposited, and that the initiative now has a responsibility to deliver vaccines to Venezuela.
“Venezuela has deposited the money,” noted Maduro. “The COVAX system has to guarantee several million vaccines in July and August in order to supplement the vaccines that we obtained in the international market.”
Featured image: The new variants detected in Venezuela entered through the borders with Colombia. (Photo: Getty Images).
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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