Both cases were 30-year-old women who had typical mild to moderate flu symptoms and did not become seriously ill or need hospitalization. In one case, the two variants identified had been circulating in Brazil since the beginning of the pandemic. In the other case, the person became infected simultaneously with both an older strain of the virus and the P.2 variant first identified in Rio de Janeiro.
The results, based on the analysis of the genomic sequencing of 92 samples extracted from the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, will appear in the April issue of the scientific journal Virus Research.
According to the study, coinfection raises the possibility of recombination of the genomes of different strains, which can generate new variants of the coronavirus.
“Although some cases of reinfection have been reported, the possibility of E484K coinfection adds a new factor to the complex interaction between immune response systems and SARS-CoV-2 Spike mutations,” the authors wrote.
The news comes when Brazil’s second wave plunges the country into crisis once again. The country recorded 2,233 new deaths from Covid-19 on Thursday and at least 272,889 people have died from the virus since the pandemic began.
ICUs and hospitals across the country are approaching and governors, state health secretaries and mayors are calling for more restrictive measures to contain the spread of coronavirus.
On Thursday, the governor of the state of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria, announced new emergency closure measures in Brazil’s richest and most populous state.
“Brazil is collapsing,” he said in a video posted moments before a press conference on the new measures, which draws a striking contrast to the assurances of Brazilian Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello just a day earlier.
“Our health care system is badly affected, but it has not collapsed or will collapse,” Pazuello had said Wednesday, attributing more and more hospitalizations and deaths in the country “mainly to new variants of the coronavirus.”
During the same observations, Pazuello also lowered expectations of Brazil’s vaccination campaign, estimating that between 22 and 25 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine would be available during the month of March, a sharp drop in the ministry’s prediction. health of 46 million doses in February.
Meanwhile, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, himself under fire for the pandemic’s management by his government, continues to reject the closure measures, instead invoking the health of the economy.
“How long will our economy last? If (the economy) collapses, it will be a misfortune. What will we have soon? Supermarket invasions, fire buses, strikes, pickets, work stoppages,” he said in a video conference with lawmakers Thursday.