Minister of Health warns that Brazilian variant of Covid-19 could be community-based

The Minister of Health, Camilo Salinas, foresees that the Brazilian variant of the coronavirus, which is already in the country, will reach community contagion, due to its high transmissibility.

“The Brazilian variant is going to be difficult to contain due to the transmission times and the presence of the virus in different patients that we have detected so far.”

This was explained in an interview with Radio Sucesos, in which he also revealed that there are already three patients detected with this variant, according to studies by the research institute of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito.

Of the three patients confirmed with this strain, two are in Loja and one in Manabí.

Regarding the latter, Sixto Ibáñez, zonal coordinator 4 of the Ministry of Health, clarified that so far it has not been confirmed that the Portoviejo patient is a carrier of the virus, so they await confirmation from the Public Health Research Institute (INSPI) .

For his part, Ángel Parrales, in charge of the health surveillance area of ​​zonal coordination 4, explained that more than 400 people are part of the epidemiological fence, due to this possible case of Covid-19, with the Brazilian variant.

As for the British and New York variants, detected weeks ago, Minister Salinas clarified that these are already community, so there is no longer an epidemiological fence. In addition, he expressed concern about the South African variant, which has not yet been confirmed in the country.

Regarding a possible confinement, the official considered that the best idea is “to seek strategies to initiate a process of tougher restrictions.”

Regarding the provision of vaccines from the four laboratories with which Ecuador has an agreement, the minister explained that until May 24, 4 million doses will arrive, to immunize 2 million people.

He assured that every Wednesday more than 50 thousand doses of the Pfizer vaccine will arrive; 135 thousand doses of AstraZeneca will arrive every Friday; and every 15 days will arrive from 700 thousand to one million Sinovac formulas.