Brazilian variant of Covid-19 has already been detected in seven Uruguayan departments

The group is made up of researchers from the University of the Republic (UdelaR) from Montevideo and Salto, the Institut Pasteur de Montevideo and the American Sanatorium. 175 samples were taken and the presence of P1 was confirmed in 24 cases. These samples were taken between March 16 and 22.

“Since it was found in different departments at the same time, this suggests that there is community circulation of the variant.”said Gregorio Iraola, researcher at the Institut Pasteur. Samples are from patients from Artigas, Montevideo, San José, Rocha, Canelones, Fray Bentos and Salto.

Present at the presentation of these data on Monday afternoon were the Minister of Public Health, Daniel Salinas, the rector of UdelaR, Rodrigo Arim, the director of the Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, Carlos Batthyány, and researchers from the GTI .

On the other hand, the Uruguayan Society of Intensive Medicine (SUMI), the Interior Medical Federation (FEMI) and the Uruguayan Interdisciplinary Group for Data Analysis (Guiad) warned that over the weekend, after nearly seven days in which new cases ranged from 1,000 to 1,700 per day, 175 were admitted to intensive care, reported the Sputnik agency.

Uruguay is at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, with 13,015 active cases after several weeks with the highest number of infections and 32 deaths just on weekends.

As the Under-Secretary for Public Health, José Satdjian said on Monday, 800,000 people between the ages of 18 and 70 were to be vaccinated with the first dose over the next few weeks, up from the quota was 170,000.

This Monday, the Ministry of Public Health plans to open the vaccination schedule for people between 71 and 79 years old, which will receive the vaccination of the American laboratory Pfizer, of which 100,000 doses have already arrived in the country and which were intended for people over 80 years and health workers.