An outbreak of the British variant of the coronavirus has been detected in Italy in a village in the north of the country.
Therefore, experts ask this Thursday "special attention to the dissemination of new variants."
On January 24, 24 people, students and teachers, tested positive for Covid-19 at a school in Corzano, a locality of around 1,400 people, and local health authorities decided to test 189 additional people, contact cases, indicates a press release from these authorities.
Of those 189 people, 139 tested positive, but only one was hospitalized, the rest having little or no symptoms at all.
Given this high figure, the health authorities have requested the sequencing of certain samples.
"Fourteen samples were sequenced and the fourteen are positive for the British variant," said the press release.
The risk of "blowing up" the case curve
The scientific health foundation Gimbe warned this Thursday against a slight resumption of contaminations in Italy, stressing the danger of new variants.
"Compared to the previous week, in nine regions we have recorded an increase in the percentage of new cases," Gimbe said in a statement, citing the figures for the week of January 27 to February 2.
"These signals invite us to follow with great attention the diffusion of the new variants, reinforcing the sequencing of the virus when we notice an abnormal increase in new cases", according to the same source.
Nino Cartabellotta, president of the foundation, is even more alarmist, evoking "the threat of new variants, already arrived in Italy, which risk exploding the contaminations curve".
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Italy, the first European country hard hit by the first wave of coronavirus, has recorded nearly 90,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, and the third largest economy in the euro area has plunged into its worst recession since World War II.
