Brazil has detected the first cases of the Indian coronavirus in the country

Brazil detected the first cases of the variant B.1.617.2, known as the Indian variant, which arrived by ship from South Africa to Maranhao State, in the north of the country.

Maranhão Health Minister and President of the National Council of Health Ministers of Brazil (CUNAS), Carlos Lula, confirmed this Thursday that up to six positives have been discovered with this alternative among 24 crew members of the Chi Shandong ship.

While the ship was isolated protectively, At least one crew member was admitted to a hospital in Sao Luis, Although his health is stable, while 14 crew members who tested positive for the coronavirus – not all of the Indian variants – are on board.

“All measures are taken, the crew is isolated and the ship cannot dock.” He identified Lola, who also indicated that a hundred people have been in contact with the infected crew, so they will be monitored and isolated, as UOL gathers.

These cases have been followed up since last Saturday, an Indian patient, who is still in the hospital, was transferred to a hospital in São Luis.

Meanwhile, the country added 2,403 more deaths due to the epidemic, leaving 82,039 new cases in the last day, according to the Ministry of Health balance published on Thursday.

Consequently, Brazil has accumulated 15,894,094 confirmed positive results and 444,094 deaths since the outbreak of the health crisis.

Early handover of coverage

The Brazilian Ministry of Health announced the expected arrival in June of four million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Oxford / AstraZeneca via the COVAX mechanism.

The doses, which will now be sent to Brazil next month, were due to be delivered in the third quarter of the year, according to Brazilian media UOL.

This batch will join the batch received at the beginning of May, which also consists of four million units of the same biological species, while both are part of the agreement with this year’s 42 million vaccines mechanism.

These doses will help the country to continue with vaccination, a process in which there have been delays due to lack of vaccines due to, among other things, a lack of input from China to produce biological materials on Brazilian soil such as CoronaVac.

So far, Brazil has applied 61.3 million doses, with 41 million people receiving at least the first dose and 20.2 million people being vaccinated with the two doses – that is, with the full scheme – -, according to the Brazilian Media Association that analyzes the epidemic on a daily basis.

Under the national vaccination plan, people with chronic neurological diseases were listed Thursday as a priority group, according to Agencia Brasil.

(With information from Europa Press)

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