Brazilian neighbors have begun restricting international travel amid concerns over the spread of a new coronavirus variable that experts say could be more contagious and drive a second wave of diseases
RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil’s neighbors are beginning to restrict international travel amid concerns about the spread of a new variety of coronavirus that experts say could be more contagious and drive a second wave of diseases.
The government of Guyana closed its border with the largest country in South America on Friday, two days after Colombia stopped passenger flights to and from Brazil; the two countries called the new variant their reason. The Argentine government has decided to cut in half the number of trips to Brazil starting on February 1, according to a Jan report. 27 in the state news agency Telam. And Peru on January 26 banned air traffic from Brazil; the governor of the Loreto Peru region over Brazil also called on the government to close ground routes.
The ban comes as Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon rainforest and the site of the uprising, suffers a brutal second wave of disease. Overrun hospitals were watching this month when their oxygen stocks were lost, causing dozens of patients to die from asphyxiation. The government has broken out to refill materials with an ad hoc plan, but the situation remains touch-and-go and family members of patients are still searching for cannisters of oxygen on their own, albeit less than earlier this month.
It has been speculated that Manaus may have just become the first city destroyed by this new snort. Other cities in the Amazon region of Brazil have since been crushed, including Porto Velho, the capital of the nearby state of Rondonia. Like Manaus, Porto Velho has begun taking patients to out – of – state hospitals. Former Brazilian health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta told the newspaper O Globo on Thursday that the new strain could cause a “mega-epidemic” across Brazil within 60 days.
The warning is growing, but science hasn’t caught up yet. Viruses are constantly evolving, and new versions – called modifications – often appear, and almost all of them are more dangerous than the previous reports.
The Brazilian variant was first identified in four passengers who had been in Brazil and tested at an airport outside Tokyo, Japan. It has also been found in patients living in the Minneapolis-St. Paul’s district, Minnesota Department of Health said in a statement this week. There is a set of lesions that may affect its ability to be identified by antibodies, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health officials are also concerned about changes first reported in the UK and South Africa.
Felipe Naveca, a researcher at the state-owned Fiocruz Amazonia institute in Manaus, said in an interview with The Associated Press this week that the new strain accounted for two-thirds of 90 samples taken between December and mid-January. Of those taken in January alone, the new weight weighed 91%. Naveca said the variation appears to be more volatile, based on its frequency of detection, and signals from the UK and South Africa that had similar mutations.
Most of the samples made by his laboratory came from Manaus, but the new strain was also found in cities deeper within the Amazon, including Sao Gabriel Cachoeira on the Colombian border.
Sylvain Aldighieri, deputy director of the health emergency department of the Pan American Health Group, said it is still too early to determine whether the variant is accelerating the spread of the virus and that more genetic prescribing is needed. However, he urged governments to be vigilant.
Speaking in an interview with the AP on Friday, Guyana Health Minister Frank Anthony said local private laboratories have already said they are equipped to test for any new series. The first 30-day ban comes with step border patrols by soldiers and police.
“We still don’t have evidence that the new strain of the COVID-19 virus is here, but we just have to be careful,” he said.
Anthony recognized that it is impossible to circumvent the 1,606-kilometer (1,000-mile) border. Thousands of Guyanese and Brazilians use the official Takatu River Bridge to enter Guyana every day, while others just hop over several other small rivers that separate the two countries of South America for trading, visiting relatives or working. Many people live in one country and work in the other so crossings are the norm for many.
Officials in Bolivia and Venezuela, which share two of Brazil’s three longest borders, have not announced any recent changes to restrictions.
Jose Gregorio Díaz Mirabal, general coordinator of Amazon Basin Indigenous Groups, warned this week that an effective barrier has not been put in place.
“There is no guarantee that it will not reach the border (Brazil) with Venezuela, with Colombia, Suriname, Guyana,” Díaz Mirabal, who is of Wakuenai Kurripako ethnicity, said in a Zoom call with reporters. ——— Writer AP Bert Wilkinson reported from Georgemas. Washington’s AP writers Melinda Ulloa contributed to Franklin Briceño of Lima, Almudena Calatrava of Buenos Aires, Regina García Cano of Bogota and Scott Smith of Caracas.