The “P.4”: investigators in suspense by a possible new variant of Covid-19 in São Paulo

Brazilian scientists say they have identified a new variant of the coronavirus which circulates inside the state of São Paulo, and which was detected for the first time in a sample taken in the municipality of Mococa.

This was reported by the researcher of the Paulista State University (Unesp) and vice-president of the Brazilian Society of Virology, João Pessoa Araújo Júnior, who clarified that this detection, however, has not yet been officially confirmed by the São Paulo state government.

Araújo Júnior argued that the origin of this new mutation is unknown, and that it is not yet possible to establish whether it is more contagious or fatal because they turned out to be other variants known so far, as he explained in an interview with Brazilian media G1.

The Brazilian Society of Virology (SBV) named the strain as “P.4” and announced this Tuesday, May 25, through a press release that this variant has the L452R mutation in the ‘spike’ protein, which is also found in the Indian variant of the coronavirus (B.1.617).

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This new variant, the researchers believe, could be linked to the lineage of the P.1 variant, first detected in the city of Manaus. The vice-president of the Brazilian Society of Virology explained that P.4 appears to be related to the strain B.1.1.28, “which is a line which gave rise to P.1, to P.2, which was identified in Rio de Janeiro, and P.3, which has been identified in the Philippines. “

According to investigators, cases have been recorded at the origin of this variant in other municipalities in the state of San Pablo such as Cesário Lange, Porto Ferreira, Santa Cruz das Palmeiras, Tambaú, Itirapina, Rio Claro, Araras, Sumaré, Caconde, Iperó, Capão Bonito, São Miguel Arcanjo, Itapetininga y Descalvado.

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The São Paulo government has not officially confirmed its detection

The Secretary of Health of the State of São Paulo has dismissed an alert for this study from the State University of Paulista and detailed that, so far, “There is no official notification of a P4 variant.”

In this sense, they added that “there are hundreds of variants of the novel coronavirus” circulating in the world but that “currently only three of them are considered “ variants of care ” by health authorities due to the possibility of greater transmissibility or severity of the infection. These variants are Brazilian P.1, B.1.1.7, detected in the UK, and B.1.351, found in South Africa.

“The detection of new variants should not be confused with the diagnosis nor can it be considered in isolation. It is a monitoring instrument to follow the pandemic, not being technically and scientifically necessary. individualized sequencing of a confirmed local circulation of each variant, ”they noted.

ag / ds