A new, rare variant of the covid-19 virus was discovered in the southern Italian city of Naples. This is the first known “B. 1.525” strain in Italy.
Federico II University and the Pascale Institute of Naples confirmed the news of the strain, which was announced by the local government of Campania last night. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, so far, there have been about 100 cases of this strain in the world including Denmark, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The local government said in a statement: “At present, we do not know the infectivity or other characteristics of this variant, just like many rare variants.” The region stated that the strain was tested positive for covid-19 after “professional returning from a trip to Africa.”
A few days ago, the Italian Ministry of Health made a decision to maintain the closure of the ski resort due to the “wide circulation” of variants of covid-19, and the news broke a few days later.
In many cities and provinces where virus mutations have been detected, local lockdown measures have already been in place. In recent days, several prominent virologists have called for a nationwide lockdown.
