Tiodorovic on new strain: How the woman arrived on Dec. 31 but it's found now, is it more contagious

Photo: ATA images

A woman from Novi Sad who brought the new, British strain of coronavirus to Serbia arrived in our country on December 31, while the mutation was discovered about ten days later. Regardless, Professor Dr. Branislav Tiodorovic, epidemiologist and member of the Crisis HQ for the fight against coronavirus, told Telegraf.rs that she had not spread it in the meantime, that all her contacts have been discovered, but pointed out that the appearance of a new strain in our country is a reason not to relax the existing measures against coronavirus, because it is realistic to expect more new cases.

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He said that the virus is more contagious, and when it is more contagious there is a possibility of a greater number of fatal outcomes, but that this is a question that microbiologists should answer.

Yesterday, President Aleksandar Vucic announced that a new strain had arrived in Serbia. He said it was brought by a woman who arrived from London. Last night, Minister of Health Zlatibor Loncar said that this was a woman born in 1958, that she most likely became infected on the plane and that she felt problems after three days. Professor Dr. Aleksandra Knezevic from the Medical Faculty in Belgrade also said that the woman was from Novi Sad.

Professor Dr. Branislav Tiodorovic has told Telegraf.rs that we must be aware that this strain will be appearing.

"She arrived on December 31 and a sample was taken from her then. And this is not a procedure that can be done so quickly. Sequencing takes ten or more days. That is why things are as they are. But in the meantime, they managed to find all her contacts. The husband had a more serious problem, he had bilateral pneumonia, while she had milder symptoms. But, the virus is now with us," Professor. Dr. Tiodorovic tells Telegraf.rs.

He says that there was no chance for the virus to spread, but he also added that it is a question whether the new strain was in Serbia even before this case was discovered.

"The question is whether we had a case before. We simply have to be ready for it to be appearing. We are a country that still has traffic connections in all directions, so whether it could have come from Romania, Hungary, it doesn't matter... A month ago, it was proposed to suspend flights with Great Britain, however, it was said that it's small enough to be properly controlled and that there is no reason to suspend them," explains Professor Dr. Tiodorovic and adds that this will most likely be discussed at the next session of the Crisis HQ, but that he doesn't believe there will be flight suspensions.

He explains that the question of whether and how much more contagious and deadly this strain is, is one for microbiologists and molecular biologists.

"It is more contagious, and therefore if we have more patients, then there can be more fatal outcomes," our interlocutor said.

No relaxing of measures

The professor also said that the appearance of a new strain is a situation that absolutely eliminates any possibility of relaxing of measures:

"So, there is no relaxing of measures, regardless of the fact that we are doing well vaccination-wise. But the next step is to provide a sufficient amount of vaccines."

According to him, the British strain was discovered in our country after that happened also in Romania, Slovenia and Hungary. It is found in 23 countries in Europe and 60 around the world.

"The South African strain is also appearing, it has appeared in Great Britain. The Brazilian strain also appeared in Britain. It's probably all because of travel. All this is to be expected. These are the same viruses, only mutants, and what is now known is that vaccines also protect against them - which of the vaccines more and which less, that's a topic for scientific debate," Professor Dr. Tiodorovic told Telegraf.rs.

(Telegraf.rs)2