For several weeks now, health and government officials were suspecting that variants - or mutations - of the COVID-19 virus had finally found their way into Belize. Tonight, the Ministry of Health is confirming, that 4 of those variants have been positively identified in Belizean patients who are COVID positive.
The Ministry reports that through their partnership with the Baylor College of Medicine, managed to get SARS-COV-2 sequencing done for 81 patients. 61 samples or 75.3% tested negative for any of the variants of concern or variants of interest. That's the good news. The bad is that the other 20, or 25% of the samples have tested positive for the variants of the virus.
3 persons tested positive for the EPSILON variant, which is not a variant of concern or interest.
5 persons tested positive for the Alpha V1 Variant, which is a variant of concern. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that this variant was first identified in the United Kingdom, and it has a 50% increase in transmissibility. That means that it is a more infectious form of the virus. It may also cause a more severe form of sickness based on hospitalization and case fatality rates.
9 patients tested positive for the Delta variant of the virus, which is another variant of concern. The CDC says that this variant also causes more infections and spreads faster than earlier forms of the virus. It may cause more severe illness than previous strains in unvaccinated people. This variant was first identified in India.
Finally, 3 patients tested positive for the Gamma V3 variant, which is another variant of concern. This one was first identified in both Japan and Brazil. The CDC says that this variant also causes more infections and spreads faster than earlier forms of the COVID-19 virus. It may also cause more severe illness than previous strains of COVID in unvaccinated people.
The 3 variants of concern that have been identified in Belize so far are from residents of the Corozal, Orange Walk, Belize, and Cayo Districts.
And internist Dr Fernando Cuellar explained that while Gamma and Alpha are concerning, the main culprit that people should be wary of is Delta. He is sure that the variant is the cause for the recent spike in cases since it increases transmissibility.
Dr. Fernando Cuellar, Internist
"But I will tell you that we have had the highest of suspicion perhaps for the past 2 months that these variants had been circulating in Belize and today's information comes as no surprise, especially to us in the medical community. But again, the saying would be better late than never. However, in clinical medicine and these types of things it would have been good to have timely information and I will urge the ministry of health to streamline or finetune or better improve the way how we get information and the necessary utensils so we can work better."
"Like I said we had been suspicious about having the variants in Belize and the outstanding one out of that list that you spoke about is the famous Delta that we've heard about for a while now, not only in Belize but worldwide and the reason being is that this variant and the word variant means this change in virus, had made this particular form of the virus more sticky, more transmissible, so there is a less need for less amount of virus needed to cause infection, less time of exposure to cause an infection and the virus grabs on, stick on to the respiratory tract stronger, so it stays and cause infections better. So that is why we fear that indeed this variant Delta would be causing more infection and by causing more infection, there will be having more hospitalized patients and of course we expect more deaths because of this Delta variant."
"But the big take home message here is the fact that variants occur because the virus keeps spreading within the community and one way, and not the only way or not the only full proof way is vaccination to stop the appearances of virus or at least to mitigate it to lessen it to reduce the chances are that these variants appear and keep spreading. So, we have the tool, let's use it. It's not just for sake for the whole country, so let's vaccinate. This same AstraZeneca that we've been using is quite effective. Again, nothing is absolute so when we talk, we are not saying that somebody cannot get sick with the Delta virus after using AstraZeneca, but the chance of severe illness and death is really low. It has proven worldwide that it is effective enough."
Back in June, when the Ministry of Health had just announced the appearance of a new variant, they said that they would try to get equipment into the country to scan for new variants this month. Dr Cuellar said it will help them to get the information on a more timely basis.
Dr Cuellar also warned of the lambda variant that is currently surging in South America, and may soon make its way to Belize.
