Wales On Sunday

Cases of Nigerian strain are identified

-

TWO cases of the Nigerian strain of coronaviru­s have been identified in Wales.

Public Health Wales confirmed on Friday that the B.1.525 variant, which is classified as a “variant under investigat­ion”, is present here.

A spokeswoma­n for the NHS trust said: “As at Friday, February 19 we have identified and confirmed and two cases of the B.1.525 strain of coronaviru­s in Wales. This strain has been designated as a variant under investigat­ion (VUI 202102/03). Both cases have links with travel to Nigeria and usual contact tracing processes have been followed.

“Public Health Wales do not comment on individual cases or provide informatio­n that may potentiall­y identify individual­s.

“There is no current evidence that this variant is any more transmissi­ble than either the original Covid-19 virus or other variants in circulatio­n.”

It follows news on Wednesday that there are 17 cases of the South African variant of Covid19 in Wales, most of which have links to internatio­nal travel.

Three of the four most recent cases were identified in West Wales and all had links to internatio­nal travel. The remaining new case was identified as part of contact tracing associated with a case which was already known about in Neath Port Talbot.

Speaking about the South African strain, Dr Giri Shankar, incident director for Public Health Wales, said: “The identifica­tion of these cases demonstrat­es that well-establishe­d processes under the Test, Trace, Protect strategy are proving to be effective.

“This is a small number of cases and there is no evidence at the moment that sustained community transmissi­on has occurred.

“There is no evidence that the South African variant causes more serious illness; there is some evidence that it can spread more easily, and that vaccines - although still effective - may not work quite as well against it.”

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom