Laboratory tests have found that the P.1 coronavirus variant that originated in Brazil can infect some people who gained immunity from previous COVID-19 infections.
The New York Times reports that the revelation was made during the investigation of the rapid outbreak of strain P.1 in the city of Manaus, Brazil, where it has dominated because it is more contagious.
Nuno Faria, a virologist at Imperial College London and a researcher who helped lead much of the P.1. studies, they told the Times that the recent findings applied to Manaus. He said he wasn’t sure if they were relevant elsewhere.
Faria and his colleagues noted that Manaus appeared to have weathered the worst of the pandemic after peaking in April last year, only for cases to rise again by the end of 2020. of the cases led investigators to suspect that a new variant had emerged.
After investigating the genomes of the variants and medical records, the researchers concluded that the P.1 variant affected Manaus by its mutations, estimating that it is between 1.4 and 2.2 times more infectious than other strains of coronavirus.
The researchers confirmed their conclusion by mixing P.1 virus with antibodies obtained from people who had the coronavirus last year and found that the antibodies were six times less effective at stopping the P.1 coronavirus.
The authors warn that the study, which has not been published in a medical journal, has only been conducted in laboratory cells and not in people.
According to Faria, the risk of P.1 outbreaks can be reduced by duplicating existing methods of virus mitigation, including masks, social distancing, and vaccinations.
“The final message is that all vaccination efforts need to be intensified as soon as possible,” Faria said. “We need to be one step ahead of the virus.”
The Brazilian strain has already targeted dozens of other countries, including the United States, which has reported cases of variant P.1 in Alaska, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota and Oklahoma.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so far 10 cases of variant P.1 have been reported in the US.