Germany banned travel from India earlier this week, allowing only citizens and residents to enter, following fears of the new Covid 19 variant, B.1.617, which originated from Indian, already spreading in Germany.
India is experiencing a dramatic surge in Covid 19 cases, with hundreds of thousands people reportedly dying every single day from the virus. With its population of 1.38 billion people, the infection rate is also reported to be very high with almost half a million of newly infected cases reported on daily bases. The numbers are feared to be more than reported as suspected cases are not being counted. Many countries, including Germany, are providing medical supplies and support.
However, Health experts say the Covid-19 variant that originated in India does not appear to have spread widely in Germany so far as feared.
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), evidence of the Indian Covid 19 variant B.1.617 in Germany remains relatively low. So far, it has been discovered “only sporadically”, 22 times in a week in examined samples, according to an RKI report published on Wednesday evening. In the previous week, the institute said they had found it 21 times.
When asked about the B.1.617 variant, Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute infectious disease agency, told reporters that, “We have isolated cases in Germany, we will release a new report today Friday.
The Indian variant is under observation by the WHO. Experts say it is too early to say whether the Indian variant, B.1.617, is responsible for the rapid increase in infections there.
The RKI report states that the dominance of the particularly contagious variant B.1.1.7, which originated in the UK and has been fueling the third wave in Germany, remains the dominant strain in the Bundesrepublik.
As for the two other variants from South Africa (B.1.351) and Brazil (P.1), which are also said to be a cause for concern, the proportions remain consistently low in Germany, at one percent and less, as shown by the data. In Germany, however, only a fraction of the samples are examined for variants using so-called whole genome sequencing.
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