Health authorities in Kosovo have announced that the first cases of infections with the new variant of the coronavirus, first identified in December 2020 in the United Kingdom, have been confirmed.
In a communication to the media, the Minister of Health, Armend Zemaj, said:
“As you know, in recent days, NIPHK has sent 30 samples for testing to the Institute of Charitable Virology in Berlin, Germany, in order to research the presence of new variants of the SARS-COV-2 virus in Kosovo, after its appearance in more than 70 countries around the world. From the results of these analyzes performed in Berlin, three (3) samples were positive in the preliminary test as SARS-CoV-2 with variant B.1.1.7. This variant was first reported on 14 December 2020 in the United Kingdom. ”
Following the verification, Kosovo suspended Pristina-London flights and vice versa. Prishtina and Fushë-Kosova still remain a red zone.
Britain was one of the first countries to identify a variant of Covid that is transmitted faster. "This mutation, at least in a laboratory setting, allows the protein to bind more strongly to proteins on the cell surfaces that are targeted," said Dr. Eleanor Gaunt from the University of Edinburgh. The variant has now been discovered in 70 countries, according to the WHO.
On 22 January, in a press release, Patrick Vallance, a physician, scientist and clinical pharmacologist in the UK who has been serving as the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser since March 2018, said that the new variant, which was believed to it is simply more transmissible, it is likely to be even more deadly . In his statement, Vallance said that with the old version, for the age group over 60, 10 per 1000 inhabitants died, while with the new version, 13 or 14 people die.
He said that we are expected to see this pace in different age groups. Vallance pointed out that there is uncertainty about these numbers, but there appears to be an increase in mortality as well as transmissibility. In terms of severity and mortality, he said data on hospitalized patients resulted in the same for both variants.
The UK variant is not the only one circulating, as mutations of the virus have also been identified in South Africa , Brazil and California .
The Ministry of Health in Albania has not published data on the existence of any new variant.
