Gorgas Institute detects four covid variants of concern

The four variants of concern of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 – the cause of the Covid-19 disease – that exist in the world have been detected in Panama by the team of scientists from the Virology and Biotechnology Research department of the Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies (Icges).

A report issued by the Ministry of Health (Minsa) shows that as of June 20, the epidemiological and genomic surveillance system had detected 245 cases of variants in travelers, including Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma.

The document does not specify the number of cases by lineage, but the report in early June reported the detection of five cases with the Delta variant originating in India, scientifically named (B.1.617). At the time, the total number was 106.

This last variant is the one with the greatest potential to be the most lethal and puts the most vulnerable people at even greater risk, the WHO warned this week.

The WHO emergency director, Michael Ryan, explained that the Delta variant is faster, more capable, and will attack the most vulnerable more effectively than the previous ones, and if there are unvaccinated vulnerable people are at higher risk. All of the variants are lethal, but this one has more potential because it is more efficient in transmission and will eventually find people who will become seriously ill, hospitalized, and may die.

Epidemiologist and public health specialist Arturo Rebollón argued that the Delta variant has already shown greater efficacy in infecting people the variants of concern have one factor in common and that is that they originated in countries where the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread “in the wild”, that is, without any control, which allowed many mutations to be generated.