The "Brazilian strain" is knocking on our door

milorad stojmanovski
Milorad Stojmanovski / Photo: Free Press

In June 2020, Brazil's Manaus was considered the first city in the world in which the population acquired collective immunity to the coronavirus, after antibodies were found in 44% of its inhabitants. In the same allegedly "infected" population, in January this year, again three quarters were infected with the new mutation, known as "Brazilian strain"! Three months later, Brazil recorded a record 4.211 deaths in just one day (April 6), and the number of newly infected reached a record nearly 100 in 24 hours.

You will say, Brazil is far away. Is it? Ten days ago, in the Lazio area of ​​Italy, one-fifth of the positive corona tests were with the Brazilian "mutant". Across the Apennine Peninsula, on March 10, the total percentage of this corona variant was 30 percent. Data that probably does not differ much in other European countries. Today that ratio is higher in favor of the "Brazilian", who is slowly suppressing the ubiquitous "British" in Europe.

Italy is a country inhabited by thousands of Macedonian emigrants. Many of them plan to celebrate Easter and Eid at home. Like many from across Europe who came among the closest ones for the Christmas holidays, around the New Year, when the Macedonian government lifted an eight-day ban on flights from the UK to Skopje, and thus the two-week isolation for passengers arriving from there.

Due to the knowledge that the new British mutation of the virus is more aggressive than the previous one, then, Dr. Goran Kungulovski from the Clinic "Jean Mitrev", more precisely on January 6, began to test the welcome at the Skopje airport. The results for the presence of B.1.1.7 variant in the country he first determined on January 27, only two days later after the academics from MANU declared that the British mutation is not on our territory. It turned out that the first sick man from Ohrid was carrying the "British strain" at the end of December. A whole month was lost for prevention due to inadequate state monitoring of mutations and lack of timely response. Thousands of guest workers arrived for the Christmas holidays, entered without a mandatory corona test and without the necessary quarantine, and on January 20, the bar's fixture was moved from 18 to 21 p.m. We are seeing the consequences of those wrong steps this week, when the average death toll is around 43 a day due to the hard-to-stop so-called "Widespread transmission".

From January to Tuesday, the only measure of protection applied in our country was the one from March 9, when (self) isolation was determined for travelers from Africa upon arrival in the country due to the danger of the spread of the "South African strain". Unlike many countries that are more cautious and more guarded by the "foreigners" who come to them, in the latest package of measures the Government did not provide for entry testing and mandatory two-week quarantine.

It will take a long time to reach the desired number of 1,2 million vaccinated Macedonians, and in that race for immunization with new mutations of the virus, every lost day means dozens of new unhappy families. The non-introduction of entry tests in the country is in order to facilitate the flow of people, which is economically justified and, above all, humane, but the lesser evil should be chosen until the number of vaccinated is satisfactory. Until then, any easing of restrictions on our border is a potential risk of new waves and peaks, catastrophic outcomes and the future complete closure of the country, which is currently the ninth in the world in terms of the number of deaths of covid-19 per million inhabitants. A warning that sounds like the siren of an ambulance.

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