The Baltic country has one of the highest COVID-19 case rates in the world. As Latvia struggles with spiking infections, its people are having to deal with a strict lockdown that experts say came too late.
For the first time Brazilian Covid-19 strain detected in Latvia
RIGA, April 27 (LETA) - For the first time, Brazilian Covid-19 strain has been detected in Latvia, Jurijs Perevoscikovs, director of the Infectious Diseases Risk Analysis and Prevention Department at the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), said at a government meeting Tuesday.
He said that the infected person is a trucker who contracted the disease in late March and was hospitalized. Most believably, the virus was contracted in Italy, said the epidemiologist.
No secondary infection cases have been detected so far.
Perevoscikovs also said that in the middle of March, two South African strains were detected, but they were not related with the earlier cases.
British strain found in nearly 70% of sequenced coronavirus samples 2021-04-27 LETA/TBT Staff
RIGA - The British coronavirus strain is now found in nearly 70 percent of all samples sequenced in Latvia, according to the data released by the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Center.
The prevalence of the British coronavirus strain continues to grow in Latvia. The variant has so far been detected in 700 virus samples, of which 63 were detected last week, making up 68 percent of all sequenced samples.
The share of the British variant, which slightly decreased in the two weeks before last, started to rise again last week. Janis Klovins, head of the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Center s Scientific Council, said earlier that the British coronavirus strain has gained foothold in Latvia.
Ugandan Covid-19 variant has mutations associated with higher transmissibility but there is no compelling evidence yet - Dumpis 2021-03-15 LETA/TBT Staff
RIGA - The Ugandan Covid-19 variant has mutations associated with higher transmissibility, but unlike in the case of the UK Covid-19 strain, there is still no compelling evidence to prove it, the Health Ministry s chief infectious disease specialist Uga Dumpis told LETA.
This Covid-19 variant was first described in Uganda where it is the prevalent strain, Dumpis said, adding that most likely this coronavirus strain arrived in Latvia from the UK. The virus has many different variants, the infectious disease specialist said, warning that the more variants are brought to Latvia the higher the likelihood that some of them will be more dangerous.
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