First case of S. Africa variant of covid-19 in Panama

A 40-year passenger from South Africa has tested positive for Sars-Cov2 variant N501Y-V2  The Ministry of Health (Minsa) announced, on Friday, January 22.

According to the Minsa, the passenger, born in Zimbabwe, who entered the country on January 5 from South Africa. He had previously made a stopover in the Netherlands, before arriving in Panama.

In accordance with the protocols established by the Minsa, all people arriving in the country from the United Kingdom and South Africa are tested for Covid-19 at the Tocumen international airport.

The test result for this passenger was negative. As part of the protocol, he was placed in immediate quarantine.

Then, on January 17, he had a second PCR test, which was positive.

Leonardo Labrador, national head of epidemiology at the Minsa, explained that the protocol for this type of passenger establishes compliance with a preventive quarantine and a second test (PCR) is carried out on the fifth day. If this is positive, the patient would go into isolation in a hospital hotel to be provided with treatment and monitoring.

The official highlighted that the country’s epidemiological surveillance system was able to capture this patient “in a timely manner” and carry out the necessary interventions to prevent the spread of this new strain of the virus that, until now, had not been detected in Panama.

Various variants detected in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil have been worrying the international community wondering about their contagion and the efficacy of vaccines against them.