The confirmation of the especially contagious new variant of the virus marks the first time it has been found in Mexico, home to the pandemic’s forth-highest death toll globally.
A 56-year-old British man who flew on Dec. 29 from Mexico City to the city of Matamoros, just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, tested positive for the new strain, both state and national health officials said on Sunday.
The man arrived to the Mexican capital a day earlier on a flight from Amsterdam, said Jose Luis Alomia, the head of epidemiology for the national health ministry, at a regular government news conference.
The official explained that upon arriving in Matamoros, the man did not show any symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. But he nonetheless tested positive again after a second test was administered to him on Dec. 31.
Alomia stressed that while the new variant has been detected, it is not believed to be circulating on any significant scale among the population.
A dozen passengers on the same Mexico City-Matamoros flight have not yet been identified, officials said, while the rest of the 45-passenger flight have all tested negative, including the plane’s crew.
The British man remains hospitalized in Matamoros, and was placed on a ventilator on Saturday.
Officials did not say that any form of contact tracing or testing had been conducted on passengers on the Amsterdam-Mexico City flight.
The fast-spreading new strain of the virus has also been found in South Africa and Australia, prompting authorities to take more aggressive action to prevent even greater contagion as countries across the globe struggle to contain the pandemic."
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I am not sure - maybe some of you may know - if this next event has anything to do with Mexico's current delay in supply problem:
~ From Reuters:
02/04/21:
Countdown to 'Catastrophe:' Inside Europe's Fight For COVID Shots
By Francesco Guarascio, John Chalmers
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~ From Zeta: (don't miss all the news)
Toca Refuerzo de Vacunas COVID-19; No Hay
Por, Ángela Torres Lozano viernes, 5 febrero, 2021 4:22pm
" The Federal Government did not deliver a percentage of vaccines that are kept in safekeeping for reinforcement to front-line personnel who were vaccinated on January 13 in Baja California, as it is waiting for the pharmaceutical company to send more doses, despite the fact that 9,750 health workers should be immunized on February 3"
The 21 days to receive the booster of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to the front-line personnel who were vaccinated during the first shipment were completed on February 3, and until Thursday 4, there is no agreed date for the immunization to reach the State .
Alonso Pérez Rico, Secretary of Health in Baja California, assured on several occasions that the Federation had a reserve (despite the fact that, due to the ultra-freezing conditions, the doses must be supplied in a matter of days and therefore cannot be stored ) to guarantee the application of the reinforcement, but after more than 21 days, little has been said about its shipment or the amount that will be taken to the different states of the Mexican Republic.
Through a statement, the Federal Government reported that the Pfizer company specified that the recommended time to apply the booster was between 21 and 28 days after the first dose, however, there were up to 42 days for it to be applied without lose effectiveness.
Given this, the state official stressed that the third shipment of vaccines will arrive between February 14 and 16, that is, between 30 and 32 days after the first application to the 9,750 health workers, considering that it does arrive on that date.
"They are the second doses for those of us who vaccinate in the first line, the 9,750 colleagues from the Health Sector, precisely to reinforce the dose from day zero until the day of the second dose," he said.
Pérez Rico told ZETA that the Federation will notify him between four and seven days before when and how many doses of the vaccine will arrive so that they can put together their vaccination strategy, so ensuring that it will arrive between February 14 and 16 is also a gamble, since it depends directly on the disposition of the pharmaceutical company for its distribution.
Little has been said about the reserve that the Federal Government has and the amount that would correspond to Baja California, meanwhile, health personnel are waiting for what the pharmaceutical company distributes and the Federation sends.
“They haven't told us anything so far. Today it was the turn of many colleagues to reinforce and were not notified. It is only known that they have not reached Tijuana until now, ”said an employee of the General Hospital who is waiting for the reinforcement.
Likewise, health personnel in general feel vulnerable, since daily they see that the population is increasingly neglected, and despite the fact that the indicators have decreased, "the virus is still latent, and lowering our guard in various ways puts in endangers everyone's health ”.
Regarding the vaccine, he commented: "We know that it will arrive, that it should arrive, what we do not know is when," which generates uncertainty among colleagues, as there is controversy regarding the effectiveness of the biological and its arrival.
For his part, Pérez Rico affirmed that the first dose will not be lost, since the reinforcement will be applied to 100% of those vaccinated in the first line of battle in the first shipment and, as of February 14, delivery will be restarted. of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines every Tuesday, although there is no certainty that this will be the case.
He also pointed out that 12 front-line workers from the Ministry of Health are missing to receive the first dose of the vaccine, while ISSSTE and Issstecali are covered, however, the number of missing employees by Social Security is unknown.
“They haven't told us anything, they say they are going to talk to us and that the vaccination is at (Clinic) 20, but that it will only be the respiratory filter personnel. They say that according to there is a list, but that magic list we do not know where it came from, ” a doctor from the institution told ZETA .
“At the end of the day, I cannot compete with the pharmaceutical capacity that the United States has, nor with the distribution of that country. I have to be very clear, the vaccine that is arriving was not bought by the State Government, it was bought by the Federal Government and bought for everyone. So the scenario is that if it is going to reach us, do not despair, ”said Pérez Rico.
The head of Health in the State insisted that Pfizer / BioNTech will send to Mexico all the vaccines that it did not send in the consequent shipment, so it was likely that the 17 thousand doses missing for January in Baja California -30 thousand were estimated and arrived just under 13 thousand - will arrive in just one. But the entity does not have the ultra-cold storage network, essential to keep the vaccine at minus 70 degrees Celsius, so it expected the dose to be distributed little by little.
NO COORDINATION BETWEEN FEDERAL DELEGATION AND STATE HEALTH
On January 29, through the video transmission of Governor Jaime Bonilla Valdez, it was announced that as of Monday, February 1, a link would be enabled on the page of the Ministry of Health to begin the registration of older adults, as a result of that calls were made by Servants of the Nation, where in addition to asking if the older adult wanted to be vaccinated, he scheduled an appointment to be immunized and asked personal information.
Given this, Alonso Pérez Rico detailed to ZETA that there was a lot of confusion among those interviewed, since only 25% said that they did want to receive the vaccine, because there was mistrust due to the number of personal questions, so it was decided to create the state link.
Likewise, on Tuesday, February 2, in El Pulso de la Salud , of the daily conferences of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the creation of the portal https://mivacuna.salud.gob.mx/ was announced to register older adults of all the country and count the amount of vaccines that would be required.
Although it is not mandatory that they register on both platforms, it is the most recommended, since the federal -and official- is to count them, and the state, is to locate the neighborhoods where there is more need, as well as the comorbidities that are affecting them said the head of Health.
Pérez Rico stressed that the link that must be promoted is the federal one, in which they only ask for name, zip code and if they want to be vaccinated or not, in order to count how many vaccines will be necessary for older adults.
In the case of the local platform, information is requested such as address, email, telephone, indicate if you have any rights (IMSS, ISSSTE, Issstecali), if there is any comorbidity or allergy and if you have received the vaccine a month ago .
“The page of the Federal Government is for Mexico to tell us how many vaccines they take; The platform that we have in the State is to help us be more accurate and more equitable in who is going to be vaccinated first and how ”, he specified, this because the Federation cannot tell the State how to distribute the vaccine, if not they know in which areas more is needed or who are more vulnerable than others.
On February 2, during The Health Pulse of the daily conference at the National Palace -now led by the Secretary of the Interior, Olga Sánchez Cordero-, the Undersecretary of Health Promotion and Prevention, Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez, emphasized that no local platform was valid.
“We know that some platforms have been announced locally in the states. There is no platform other than the one presented below for Mexico's vaccination program. So don't be confused with other platforms. The platform of the Government of Mexico, of the Federal Government, is the platform that will take you to receive your vaccine against COVID-19 if you are an adult over 60 years old, ”the federal official would report.
Meanwhile, Alonso Pérez Rico emphasized in this regard: “I know that the platform is federal, but if today I ask the Federation 'please tell me, of those who interviewed on the platform in Baja California, over 80 years old, how many diabetics want to be vaccinated 'They will not be able to tell me that information, because they are not asking for it ”.
Even so, he affirmed that the federal platform is not deficient, but that the state platform complements the first in terms of qualitative information, since it will be used for future programs.
"We are not competing, this is not a beauty pageant or a competition, this is a medical technical situation," he concluded.
Scientists will take weeks to confirm coronavirus mutation in Jalisco
After four cases of a variant of the SAR-CoV-2 virus were detected in the Emerging and Reemerging Research Laboratory of the University Center for Health Sciences (CUCS) of the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), scientists will take several weeks to determine if it is a new strain or indeed, a variant.
Clinical authorities clarified that it is not about any of the coronavirus strains discovered during 2020 and colloquially known as the South African, British or Brazilian, but that it is not yet possible to speak of a new strain.
The finding of the mutation is known as E484K, with a higher transmission power than the common SARS-CoV-2.
It was on January 29 when, at a press conference, the governor of Jalisco, Enrique Alfaro Ramírez, reported that four cases of what was thought to be a variant of the aforementioned strains were being followed. He warned that "it was not a minor matter", but that, due to the transmissibility of the virus, "it could be more contagious."
The Institute for Epidemiological Diagnosis and Reference is already investigating the mutation detected in the four patients, who did not leave Jalisco or were in contact with foreigners. Three of the people live in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area and one more in Puerto Vallarta.
Scientists from the UdeG are working to identify the importance of the changes in the virus (mutation called E484K), which could be a local variant. According to what has been revealed so far, the mutation of the virus occurs in a small particle known as the gesticulate protein, which modifies its structure and allows a greater transmission of the disease and the number of infections.
Héctor Raúl Pérez Gómez, infectologist and member of the UdeG situation room for monitoring COVID-19, affirmed that for now there is only talk of a mutation and not a new strain, since in the cases of the British and South African they present, the first, eight different mutations, and the second, at least nine.
The former director of the Civil Hospitals of Guadalajara explained that there is no precise time to know the result of the studies that are already being carried out on the E484K mutation, since the frequency of the mutation of circulating viruses in Jalisco must be determined and requires to know new cases.
For now, the samples are subjected to genomic sequencing in molecular biology or molecular virology laboratories to dismember all the segments of the viral genome, which is complex and will require several weeks, obtaining multiple more samples to analyze.
For his part, the epidemiologist and specialist in Public Health, Carlos Alonso Reynoso, assured that if confirmed, it is a variant or new strain of SAR-COV-2 and the authorities would have to act at airports and perform PCR tests on the travelers or request them prepared in a time not exceeding 72 hours.
It should be remembered that on January 4, in Tamaulipas, a 56-year-old patient tested positive for the new variant of the virus, which appeared in the United Kingdom. The man, who had been in Holland, was asymptomatic during the first days, but seven days later he worsened and was intubated.
Platforms fail on the first day of registration for COVID vaccine
Barely a few minutes passed since the local platform was enabled to register older adults to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and it collapsed without giving a chance to anything. Situation that was replicated the next day with the federal link.
In the live broadcast of Governor Jaime Bonilla Valdez, corresponding to January 29, the Secretary of Health in Baja California, Alonso Pérez Rico, announced that during the broadcast on Monday, February 1, the page http://bajacaliforniasalud.org would be activated / vaccinacovid19 / to start the registration. But it was not like that. It had to wait until noon for it to be enabled and, after the first few minutes, it thundered. That is, it was impossible to enter, it marked an error or simply "the page takes time to load."
Although on the afternoon of the same Monday, some fortunate ones were able to register or register their elderly, the page crashed on several occasions, although there was already a little lighter traffic on Tuesday.
ZETA was present at the registry of an older adult on the state platform, in which the Unique Population Registry Code (CURP) was entered and a questionnaire related to chronic-degenerative diseases, allergies, COVID-19 and application of the flu vaccine.
After capturing the data, an attempt had to be made to save the information for an hour, since the page would remain static; Later, it gave the opportunity to move forward and begin to provide an address, email, cell phone, indicate if he had any rights and if he could go by his own means to the vaccination center that is installed.
After filling in the fields, the attempt had to be made for another half hour to save the information, in doing so, it was necessary to once again place the CURP and move forward to receive the PDF file with the receipt.
But this did not happen with the federal link h ttps: //mivacuna.salud.gob.mx/ , since from the Tuesday that it was enabled, until the closing of this edition (February 4), it was not possible to advance in the registry , because when entering the CURP, the legend appeared "The hours of operation are from 8 in the morning to 12 at night from Monday to Sunday."
On the same Tuesday it was not possible to enter "Guide to Register in Mivacuna", but as of Thursday, the link sends to a downloadable PDF file, in which the instructions for registration are given.
Social media users have shown confusion about which platform to use. In this regard, Alonso Pérez Rico stressed that both are viable, however, the federal is the one that should be promoted."
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Well, don't feel too bad, it was not peaches and cream in the States either, we just happened to get lucky as did some of our neighbors. Maybe we will all be more prepared for the next pandemic, which reminds me...months ago I was in Sprouts - this was before people were wearing masks and not really social distancing (except I was wearing gloves) and this man said to me, "You think this is bad? Wait for the next one."
And, another thing about MTGreen - she needs to keep a mask on, no one wants to look at her horse face.
I was going to use "Real Real Gone " for MTG by Van Morrison, but I'm completely disappointed in him (where I had always adored him), but distraught at how he was so anti-lockdown during this crises.
Take care, stay safe and get your shots...be back in a couple of days....
Take it away Randy ! BTW, I don't know how or who chooses the videos which come up after the initial video, but do check out John Batiste's I Need You, completely cool. (; In case something weird happens and it is superceded by something else, go here, fantastic, he is brilliant !
