The General Hospital of Elche has detected two cases of patients carrying the new British strain of coronavirus . These are the first two cases of this variant detected in the Valencian Community.

The finding has been confirmed after genetically sequencing the samples of two covid patients suspected of being carriers of this variant of the virus, as confirmed by Antonio Galiana , principal investigator of the Microbiology service of the General Hospital of Elche. This health center is part, together with the General Hospital of Alicante, of the national Seqcovid consortium in charge, thanks to funds from the Carlos III research institute, of sequencing samples of covid patients to determine the transmission patterns of the virus. 

With this finding, the Valencian Community joins other autonomies, such as Madrid , which have already detected cases of this new strain of coronavirus. The problem with these variants is that it is much more contagious . In fact, cases in the UK, where this strain is already dominant, have skyrocketed to levels not yet reached during the pandemic.

As this newspaper has learned, the patients in whom the variant has been detected are Spanish and one of them would have recently traveled to the United Kingdom.

Nine confirmed cases in Spain

This Monday, the director of the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CAES), Fernando Simón , reported that there were 9 confirmed cases of the new British strain , and that there were more that were being investigated. Of these cases, four have been located in Madrid and another five in Andalusia .

Simón explained that those infected showed symptoms four or five days after arriving from the United Kingdom. That is why he explained that the possibility of detecting them at the airport or at origin "was low."

Both Simón and the Minister of Health, Salvador Illa , have stressed that "there is no incontestable scientific evidence" of this strain "has greater transmissibility." Similarly, Illa has highlighted that according to the information available to him, "this mutation does not invalidate the vaccines available to date."

In INFORMATION, we interviewed Kika Colom , a microbiologist from the Miguel Hernández University of Elche , who also explained that "the new strain will not lower the effectiveness of the vaccine because it does not affect the antibodies."

Border closure

Despite everything, last week the Government of Pedro Sánchez canceled flights from the United Kingdom except for Spanish citizens and residents. Days before, 10 other European countries had already closed their borders with England, whose Health Minister, Matt Hancock , stated that "it is a deadly disease and we must control it, which is more difficult with this new variant."