Health officials from Spain’s capital city Madrid on Friday confirmed that they have reported the first case of Brazilian variant of coronavirus in the city. It has been claimed that the new Brazilian variant is particularly infectious.
As per the statement released by the regional government, a 44-year-old man who arrived at Madrid’s airport on January 29 tested positive for the coronavirus and subsequent lab tests confirmed that he has new variant rampant in his body.
The new variant is already wreaking havoc in Brazilian city of Manaus and in a bid to restrict the spread, Spain had announced restriction on air travel from Brazil and South Africa.
Madrid has since the end of December also restricted arrivals from Britain after Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed the new variant in the country which was considered to be 70 per cent more aggressive that the virus.
Health authorities have expressed concern that new strains of the virus may spread more easily or could contain mutations which allow the virus to evade the effects of vaccines.
On the vaccination front, Spain has started to vaccinate its people with AstraZeneca’s covid-19 vaccine.
The country’s health chiefs have authorised the use of the drug to inoculate people aged between 18 and 55, but restricted in for elderly amid concerns over a lack of data on it use on them.
Spain’s decision comes just hours after UK drugs regulators received extra trial data from AstraZeneca which supports their view that the vaccine is effective in the elderly.
