Denmark’s health ministry has confirmed the first case of the P1 mutation of the covid-19. The novel pathogen’s strain was identified for the first time in Brazil, Ritzau has learned.
Danish top medical official Magnus Heunicke said that the P1 variant had now been detected in the EU country. In his recent twetm the health minister stressed that the national infectious disease agency, State Serum Institute (SSI), has stated that the case occurred in the Greater Copenhagen region.
As of Wednesday, there is no detailed information about the scale of infection. It is still unknown whether the pathogen occurred in Denmark or was imported by someone who travelled to the country from abroad.
According to Heunicke, an intensive contact tracing effort was underway in order to minimise the risk that the variant could spread further.
Denmark faced the new strain of the COVID-19
The P1 variant was first identified in January in the tropical Brazilian city Manaus. The World Health Organization said it is considered to be more infectious than previous forms of covid-19, like other new variants B117 and B1351.
It is unclear whether corona patients who become infected with the P1 strain become more ill with the virus compared to other types.
So far, the international health body, WHO, believes the strain to now have spread to around 30 countries including several in Europe.
