The Undersecretary of Health, Hugo López-Gatell, indicated that, although there is still no evidence that the new strain of COVID-19 is in Mexico, it may have arrived in the country for several weeks.
At a press conference, the official indicated that there is still no evidence that this new strain, which was detected for the first time in UK, have higher lethality.
“The variant had already been identified since September, although it was notified in December, the first week of December, most likely the strain is already in multiple countries,” he said.
“Could it be in Mexico? So far in Mexico it has not been identified, but it could already be in Mexico for some time, not that it just arrived, from long ago. “
López-Gatell asserted that, for the moment, in the country the borders will not be closed to prevent the variant of the virus from reaching the country.
“There is no evidence that this particular variant represents an additional threat to public health beyond the fact that we are in the middle of a pandemic. Mexico, which has the conduct of the epidemic on a technical basis, will not carry out this type of operations, unless information to the contrary was presented, “he said.
The official indicated that when the strain is identified in Mexico, the population will be notified.
Meanwhile, Colorado authorities reported on Tuesday the first case in the United States of a person infected with the variant of the coronavirus loaded with mutations that originated in the United Kingdom.
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