Mexico City, Mexico — The Institute for Epidemiological Diagnosis and Reference confirmed on Tuesday the presence of the South African E484K mutation and Brazilian variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in Mexico.
In a statement, José Francisco Muñoz Valle, rector of the University Center for Health Sciences and general coordinator of Health for Covid-19 at the University of Guadalajara where the variant was detected, said that these mutations are the ones that most concern scientists, since the variant is associated with a decrease in virus neutralization up to ten times.
The cases date back to January 29, when the University of Guadalajara, located in the state of Jalisco, announced four cases of Coronavirus with the E484K mutation. They were sent for study to the Instituto de Diagnóstico y Referencia Epidemiológicos (InDRE).
Subsequently, the Institute notified the University that, derived from their analysis, these four people were identified as belonging to the variant detected first in Brazil.
But those were not the only cases. Another nine samples are pending validation for the same characteristics.