The Ômicron variant of the coronavirus should become dominant in Brazil in the first half of January. The prediction is made by virologist Fernando Spilki, coordinator of the Corona-Ômica network, which brings together Brazilian laboratories to capture, sequence and analyze the genome of samples of Sars-CoV-2.
“The notification of cases and sequencing is far from what we can do, but we have several indications of this variant’s arrival,” he said.
The diagnosis of the variant’s circulation in Brazil is currently hampered by the underreporting of cases, by the problems in the Ministry of Health’s data and by the fact that some laboratories are now returning from the end-of-year recess.
But it is possible to predict, according to him, that the Ômicron variant will spread across the country much faster than the Delta. He points out that the expansion of the virus circulation in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro is being very accelerated, and that in the first state it is possible that the variant becomes the main one this week.
“Since the week before Christmas, it has been possible to observe an increase in the demand for diagnoses and the high positivity of the tests,” he said, highlighting the impossibility of confirming which are positive for which variant. This is because many of the tests performed are quick, and therefore do not involve sending samples for gene sequencing.
Attacks on the Ministry of Health’s systems, according to him, contribute to the advance of Ômicron being more noticeable through experience than through the reliability of test data.
“The last few weeks before December were good, we had been seeing a significant and sustained drop in cases. But in December the situation got a lot worse in terms of data, diagnosis is more difficult”.
A CNN he sought out the Ministry of Health to pass on the expert’s speech about the attacks on the system and is awaiting a return.
Reference: CNN Brasil
