translated from Spanish: They announce “massive” search in Chile for contagious British strain

The mutation of a strain of coronavirus in the United Kingdom, which would already be dominant in that country, was already detected in Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Australia, but also in Gibraltar, which makes fears of its presence in Spain, given the high mobility of people between that country and the British border island. The situation led the government of Pedro Sánchez to suspend from today in coordination with Portugal all flights from Great Britain, in addition to strengthening border controls with Gibraltar.De this way, Madrid and Lisbon joined thirty countries that banned travel after London reported what happened with this variant of covid-19, which for now would have a 40% to 70% increase in contagion compared to the “common” strain. This, although scientists have detected that there are more than 30 mutations of the pathogen. Apart from Spain and Portugal, the countries that have taken the measure for different lapses are Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany, Ireland, Turkey, Switzerland, Denmark, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Czech Republic, Sweden, Austria, Poland and Norway in Europe.In Africa Morocco did; Asia, Israel, Kuwait and India; and Canada, El Salvador, Peru, Colombia, Argentina and Chile.La Moneda decided to enter all those who have been in the last 14 days in the United Kingdom, as returning Chileans and resident foreigners were required to carry out a mandatory quarantine. In addition, the rest are sued by a negative PCR carried out 72 hours ago.As another precautionary measure, since yesterday at Santiago airport works together with the sanitary and police teams a brigade of dogs detectors of coronavirus. The animals were trained by UC specialists, who took advantage of the more than 3 million olfactory receptors that the dogs have. From the Government they stressed that it is the first of its kind certified to work in these purposes in America and is the third in the world in air terminals.” The sensitivity of these dogs is practically equating to that of the PCRs,” explained Interior Minister Rodrigo Delgado, who recalled that this pesquisa is in addition to random examinations of passengers in the entrance row. Those chosen for review are taken a sample of sweat, which is entered into a bottle that is then sniffed by two dogs, to have a double checkup. If they detect a possible infected person, the person is required to undergo a PCR. Vaccine, strain and chiliThe British authorities on the weekend elucubrated that the new strain could affect the effectiveness of the Pfizer and Biontech vaccine, which was approved yesterday by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The agency defended the antidote against this possible new scenario.” At the moment, there is no evidence that this vaccine will not work against the new strain,” said its CEO, Emer Cooke.The drug was approved last week in Chile and is expected to start being applied from this week. Yesterday, Health Minister Enrique Paris said WHO reported that the strain does not affect the effectiveness of the vaccine and added that there is “no indication that it is more clinically aggressive,” although it did grant that it has greater contagion. Faced with this, he announced that together with the Ministry of Science they will accelerate the “massively” sequencing of the type of virus that is circulating in Chile.Paris said that for this purpose the PCR is sufficient and added that while the Institute of Public Health (ISP) has the capacity to do so, they agreed to ask the universities for support because the goal is to maximize the viral sequencing” of the covid present at the local level. Faith in sputnik vAunque has been marked by secrecy in its development, the director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kiril Dmítriev, assured that the Sputnik V vaccine is “highly effective both against the new mutation of the virus discovered in Europe and against existing strains,” he added, “has been demonstrating its effectiveness in a period despite previous mutations in protein S.”

Original source in Spanish