Dr. Gligic claims: New strain has been in Serbia for some time, even before traveler from London

Dr Ana Gligić; Poto: Screenshot Youtube/RTS

With the confirmation of the presence of the new, British strain of coronavirus, the epidemiological "game" has been reset and we can againexpect an increase in the number of infections; however, whether it will be causing a more severe clinical picture and higher mortality rate will be known more reliably, both in our country and elsewhere in the world, only in a month's time.

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Along with many unknowns that still accompany the original strain, and especially this new one, which is only known to be much more contagious - up to 70 percent - virologist Dr. Ana Gligic told Novosti that the only thing that's certain is that the available vaccines against Covid 19 also protect from the altered strain, but to a smaller degree.

Dr. Gligic has no dilemma at all that the British strain has been present in Serbia even before it was officially confirmed in a sample taken from a woman from Novi Sad, who arrived from the UK on December 31.

"Now we have an epidemic within a pandemic, and to me personally proof that the new, changed strain has been present in our country for some time is that the scale of the number of new cases has been going up and down for a long time," says Dr. Gligic.

"The epidemic is not behaving now like in did in April. After coming down from a peak, we did not settle on one number of newly infected people, which is confirmation that something has changed in the behavior of the virus. It is, in a way, a pattern of action of these viruses from their natural hotspot, for which humans are just a random link. Struggling to survive, they change to benefit themselves, surprising us and reseting the epidemic process back to the beginning."

The new strain was confirmed in our country after the same happend in Romania, Slovenia and Hungary. It's currently found in 23 countries in Europe, and 60 around the world. Many countries, precisely due to the fact that it is much more contagious - and according to some estimates up to 40 percent more deadly - are again choosing lockdowns and tightening their anti-epidemic measures.

"There is a lot of speculation, but so far nothing has been proven and we have to wait a month or two to be able to say more reliably whether the British strain causes a more severe clinical pictures, whether it attacks more organs in the human body than the original strain of coronavirus, whether it produces higher lethality," says Dr. Gligic.

She added that she is convinced that we will pull through despite the (expected) increase in infections, but without an enormous growth of new cases compared to the peak of the third wave of the epidemic, and that this is true thanks to vaccination, natural seroprevalence, and partly due to the behavior of viruses that come from nature to humans - unless coronavirus tricks us again, as it has surprised us many times so far with its behavior and characteristics.

Of course, it's still early to calculate to what extent the existing vaccines could be less effective against the new strain, but Dr. Gligic is convinced that these deviations will be the smallest with the Chinese vaccine.

"That is a dead vaccine made from whole virus particles and will create antibodies even towards small changes in the virus itself, but maybe not exactly to the percentage declared by the manufacturer," she explains.

All three vaccines are effective

It is the precisely the Chinese Sinopharm-produced vaccine that Serbia has the largest number in stock, and President Aleksandar Vucic revealed that he pleaded with the Chinese president for another million doses. Meanwhile, deliveries of the Pfizer vaccine have been reduced: 11,700 doses arrived on Monday.

Dr. Mirsad Djerlek, State Secretary at the Ministry of Health, says that the same amount is expected next week, while we should receive 40,000 doses on February 15, and again on the 22rd.

Photo: Tanjug/ Dragan Kujundzic

As announced by President Vucic, in addition to regular, weekly deliveries, Serbia will soon receive 100,000 doses from the same manufacturer, procured from the "side lines" - amind the general global rush to acquire vaccines.

25,000 people have been invited to get vaccinated across Serbia on Monday. They previously applied through the e-Uprava portal or the call center, and there have been more than 578,000 applications registered so far in total.

"For everyone who receives the first dose of the vaccine, the second is provided, and all three available vaccines in Serbia are effective also against the new strain of the virus," says Mirsad Djerlek.

Photo: Tanjug/Rade Prelic

"We call on citizens to get vaccinated as soon as possible. There is room for caution due to the confirmation of the new strain, not for panic, but we still have to respect epidemiological measures."

Professor Branislav Tiodorovic, epidemiologist and a member of the Crisis HQ is convinced of the same. He says that it's realistic to expect more new cases with the British strain, although all contacts of the Novi Sad woman have been traced.

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

"There was no chance for it not to spread, but the question is whether we had the new strain even before this case was discovered. We 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 or Hungary, doesn't matter," he said.

(Telegraf.rs)