In Brazil, the third most infected country with coronavirus for the entire pandemic, the country was warned of a “mega-epidemic” due to pathogen mutations. This was stated by the former head of the country’s Ministry of Health Luis Enrique Mandetta, reports the Globo newspaper.
Thus, a new strain of coronavirus discovered in Brazil could lead to an expansion of the epidemic in the largest Latin American state. According to him, while the whole world stops air communication with Brazil, the authorities inside the country are transporting patients from one state to another, without establishing cordons for biological safety. “Probably, we will spread this strain to all subjects of the Federation and in 60 days we can get a mega-epidemic,” the specialist suggested.
On January 28, the number of cases of coronavirus infection in the world exceeded 100 million. Of these, more than 55.9 million patients have recovered and over 2.1 million have died. The largest number of detected infections is observed in the USA, India, Brazil. Russia ranks fourth.
Since the beginning of December, it has become known about the emergence of new mutated strains of SARS-CoV-2 from the UK, South Africa and Brazil. These variants of the virus appear to spread more easily, and this could lead to an increase in cases, deaths and hospitalizations.