Brazil detects an unprecedented variant of covid-19 after the Copa América

Brazilian fans at the Maracana, last Saturday, during the final of the Copa América.

It was the only game with fans in the stands.NELSON ALMEIDA / AFP

Two days after Argentina won the 2021 Copa América against Brazil in the mythical Maracanã, the Adolfo Lutz Institute of São Paulo announced that it had found an unprecedented variant of the coronavirus in the country among the cases related to the competition. It is the strain B.1.612, which comes from Colombia and appeared in a sample sent from Cuiabá, one of the event venues. The presence of the new variant, whose impact cannot yet be measured, is one of the health consequences of holding a tournament that, embraced by the federal government at the last minute, has not even functioned as an oxygen balloon for the crisis facing Jair Bolsonaro, and also ended with the defeat of the host team in the final. A championship that has accumulated more confirmed virus infections (168) than goals scored (60).

The Adolfo Lutz Institute - a prestigious reference laboratory accredited by the Brazilian Ministry of Health - has received 12 tests from the Copa América, all from Cuiabá, for genetic sequencing analysis. Of these, 10 cases of the Manaus variant have been identified and another two of the B.1.621 variant, a variant not previously registered in Brazil, classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "under surveillance" due to the lack of of studies and that it has been detected for the first time in Colombia. During the Copa América, Cuiabá welcomed the Colombian national team, along with the Ecuadorian team. In its latest statement issued, the Ministry of Health counted 168 cases of coronavirus related to the tournament, including 37 players or members of the technical committees,five Conmebol employees and 126 subcontractors. Until then, all those that had been sequenced (22) belonged to the Manaus variant. Brazil, which had just over 460,000 deaths from the disease when it officially agreed to host the Copa América in early June, ends the competition with more than 530,000 deaths a month and a half later, although in recent days there has been a decline of deaths. Conmebol, which received 50,000 vaccines in a commercial agreement with the Chinese company Sinovac to immunize the participants in the Cup, donated 20,000 doses to the Brazilian Ministry of Health.000 deaths from the disease when it officially accepted to host the America's Cup, at the beginning of June, the competition ends with more than 530,000 deaths a month and a half later, although in recent days there has been a decrease in deaths. Conmebol, which received 50,000 vaccines in a commercial agreement with the Chinese company Sinovac to immunize the participants in the Cup, donated 20,000 doses to the Brazilian Ministry of Health.000 deaths from the disease when it officially accepted to host the America's Cup, at the beginning of June, the competition ends with more than 530,000 deaths a month and a half later, although in recent days there has been a decrease in deaths. Conmebol, which received 50,000 vaccines in a commercial agreement with the Chinese company Sinovac to immunize the participants in the Cup, donated 20,000 doses to the Brazilian Ministry of Health.

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• Messi's Argentina has its 'Maracanazo': beat Brazil in the Copa América final

Despite facilitating the entry of an unpublished strain and counting 168 infections among the participants in the competition, the sanitary protocol, used by the Brazilian Government as a guarantee to hold the America's Cup, was relaxed for the final last Saturday at the stadium from Maracaná.

Conmebol allowed the entry of more than 5,000 people, including Brazilian and Argentine fans, as well as guests, provided they presented a

negative. However, hours before the game, the organization reported having detected "a considerable amount" of adulterated evidence among those submitted by fans. The scenes at the entrances to the Maracana before the start of the match, with crowds lined up in queues, revealed a disorganization that worsened from the moment the public was authorized to enter, when many fans pushed each other with the intention of forcing the game. access to the stadium.

The Copa América has not met the political expectations of the far-right president either.

Criticized from the health point of view even before it started, the competition has not managed to hook the fans either on television, on the internet, or in stadiums.

So much so that not even the president himself paid much attention to football.

With the exception of the opening day, when he tweeted a photo watching the broadcast from his home, Bolsonaro has not used social networks to talk about the Copa América.

The Minister of the Civil House (Government), Luiz Eduardo Ramos, in charge of the official statement on the day that Conmebol announced that the tournament would be held in Brazil, published a tweet on July 8 in which he praised "excellence in the sanitary protocols ”of the Copa América.

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