Friday, March 29

The new mutations of Ómicron already dominate in Spain over the ‘stealth’


Madrid

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The Omicron variant of the coronavirus, with a greater capacity for immune escape than its predecessors, has left in Spain an increase in transmissibility and, consequently, a greater number of cases. Predominant in Spain since the end of 2021, when it was imposed on Delta, now it is its sublineages that are fighting to prevail. If in the month of May the ‘stealth’ mutation became the majority, now it is the BA.4 and BA.5 who win the game.

The sequencing of random samples establishes that the percentage of Ómicron is situated at 100% of the cases. Random screenings using specific PCR for BA.2 have detected percentages ranging between 23.7% and 60.7% in the week from June 13 to 19.

This very week, for lineages BA.4 and BA.5 is between 19.2% and 76.3%.

As explained by the Ministry of Health in its latest report, over the last two months, the lineages BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5, which have shown a growth advantage over BA.2, have been progressively increasing its prevalence globally. The mutations present in these lineages represent a major antigenic shift (particularly against BA.1) which gives them a higher immune escape. So far, says Health, no differences have been observed in the severity of the cases for any of them.

Portugal was the first country in the environment in which an increase in the BA.5 lineage was detected, which became dominant in May, coinciding with an increase in the incidence of Covid-19 cases. At the moment there are several countries, including Spain, in which one or more of these lineages are displacing BA.2.

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In Andalusiain just one week, the BA.4 and BA.5 variants have gone from being 30.2% of cases to 60.9%. Also in Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Catalonia, Extremadura, Murcia, Navarra and the Basque Country these are by more than 50% of the cases. The highest incidence is still in Galicia, where it reaches 76.3% of the random samples. But the greatest growth occurs in the Basque Country, where they have gone from assuming 24.5% to 61.6% in just seven days.

In the Canary Islands, these two mutations are found in 19.2% of the samples, growing from 10.1% the previous week. In Castilla-La Mancha, it went from 5.4% to the current 28.7%.

The Minister of Health of the Community of Madrid, Enrique RuizEscudero, This Tuesday, he blamed the increase in Covid-19 cases in recent weeks precisely to the presence of the A-4 and BA-5 sublineages, which are “much more contagious” than the previous Omicron variants, but he stressed that it is not can speak of a situation comparable from the clinical point of view to what was previously experienced.

“We continue to be concerned because, although the clinical evolution of the patients is better, You have to be very attentive” Given the contagion figures, he indicated during the inauguration of a recreational garden on the roof of the Gregorio Marañón Hospital.

Saturated emergencies

On the other hand, the Spanish Society of Emergency and Emergency Medicine (Semes) has warned that the emergency services Emergencies throughout Spain are “saturated”since the seventh wave of coronavirus infections has produced an increase in the demand for care that has caused an increase in the burden of around 30 percent in some communities.

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However, this increase has also been related in recent days to the heat wave that has devastated the country, the atypical cases of respiratory infections in these months of the year. «Everything, in a scenario dynamited by the shortage of doctors and the readjustment of resources due to the upcoming summer holidays”, they have said from the organization, to warn that “any increase is critical since the Emergencies have been stressed for too long”.

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