Rio de Janeiro identifies new virus strain circulating in the state

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Rio de Janeiro State Department of Health (SES) has identified a new variant of the Covid-19 virus circulating in the state, according to a statement released yesterday, May 6th, by the government.

The strain, which was named P.1.2 was found mainly in the Northern Region, but was also identified in samples in the Metropolitan, Central and coastal lowlands regions.

The new SARS-CoV-2 variant was named as such because it is a mutation of the P1 strain, which is still more frequent in the state, corresponding to 91.49% of the samples analyzed. This variant was first identified in Manaus.

The P.1.2 was identified in 5.85% of the 376 samples submitted to the second stage of sequencing performed by the SES.

In lesser proportions, the B.1.1.7 strains were also identified, a variant initially identified in the UK, found in 2.13% of samples, and the P2, identified in the state of Rio, in 0.53%.

According to the SES Undersecretary for Health Surveillance and leader of the research, Cláudia Mello, it is still unclear if the new variant is more transmissible or lethal.

According to her, based on this result, monitoring will continue to investigate the potential effects, i.e. the variant’s epidemiological behavior.

The study shows that the P1 strain remains present in virtually all regions of the state, and the P2 strain in the northern and coastal regions. The B.1.1.7 variant has been identified in all regions except for the coastal lowlands.

Monitoring

In this stage, according to the SES, 376 samples from 57 cities were investigated, selected from genomes sent to the Noel Nutels Central Laboratory (Lacen/RJ), between March 24th and April 16th.

This study is part of one of the largest initiatives in the area of Covid-19 virus sequencing in Brazil, which foresees the analysis of about 4,800 samples in 6 months.

The initiative is funded by the Research Support Foundation of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) and relies on the partnership of the National Laboratory for Scientific Computing (LNCC), the Laboratory of Molecular Virology of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Lacen, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and the Municipal Health Secretariat of Rio de Janeiro.

Two other sequencing studies of samples from Rio de Janeiro are in progress, conducted by Fiocruz and the Ministry of Health. In all, 708 samples have been analyzed since February. The P1 variant prevailed in the sequencing.