2024-01-19 19:54:24
Amid a notable increase in COVID-19 cases during the first weeks of the year, health experts warn regarding the accelerated circulation of the virus and the potential risk of a new variant, J-N1, from Europe or the United States.
“There are many cases. It is circulating in an incredible way,” commented Hugo Pizzi, an infectious disease doctor.
The average number of daily cases of COVID-19 reported nationwide rose from 268 in the first week of January at 472 last week.
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The majority of cases registered in recent weeks belong, for the most part, to elderly people, who have numerous comorbidities and have a outdated vaccination schedule.
For Pizzi, the COVID virus “never left. Cases are resurfacing and there is a risk of J-N1 that can come from Europe or the United States, which is more complicated, the person who is well vaccinated will not suffer anything, that is the secret,” he commented.
Along the same lines, Miguel Díaz, an infectious disease doctor and former director of the Rawson Hospital, added that: “it is a virus that will circulate for many yearswhich is going to produce these outbreaks because it is a virus that changes and adapts.”
The SADI (Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases) recommends that pregnant people, people over 50 years of age or with comorbidities, should receive a booster of the COVID vaccine every 6 months. For the rest of the population, the booster should be once a year.
“What do we have going for us? There is a large percentage of the world’s population that has natural immunity for the same infection and immunity conferred by the same vaccine. In a study carried out last year in the United States on 200,000 blood donors, 97% had antibodies once morest COVID,” Díaz said.
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Formerly Omicron, now J-N1
The new J-N1 variant, derived from the BA.2.86 lineage, was designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a variant of concern on December 18, 2023. According to the risk assessment carried out by the WHO, This variant exhibits a remarkable growth advantage and emerged as the predominant lineage in some countries in the Americas, Europe and the Western Pacific regions.
Still, “the available information does not suggest that the severity of the disease associated with this variant is higher compared to others circulating variants”, reads the latest National Bulletin.
“However, risk groups can cause a serious illness, which is why it is still recommended to use masks when there are outbreaks, in certain cases to do preventive isolation and get vaccinated every six months,” said Díaz.
Finally, “you have to be very cautious, the pandemic did not endthe virus will continue to circulate and it is a virus that in special situations can still behave aggressively,” he concluded.
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