The snow is in front of the entrance to the Garmisch-Partenkirchen hospital. A possible new variant of the coronavirus was discovered at Garmisch-Partenkirchen Hospital. The samples are currently being examined at Charité Hospital in Berlin, the hospital announced on Monday.
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Germany is the latest country to discover a new coronavirus mutation, with a new variant identified among a group of hospital patients in Bavaria.
Local media reported for the first time on Monday that an unknown variant of coronavirus was discovered in 35 patients at a hospital in the Bavarian ski town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southeastern Germany.
The altered virus was found in 35 of 73 newly infected people in the hospital, the Bavarian press BR24 reported on Monday. The samples are now being examined at Charité University Hospital in Berlin. CNBC contacted the German Ministry of Health to confirm the reports.
Officials said the variant is different from the recently discovered variants in the UK and South Africa.
The hospital’s deputy medical director, Clemens Stockklausner, told a news conference on Monday that it was not yet clear whether the mutation made the virus more transmissible (as in the case of variants found in the UK and South Africa) or more deadly.
“At the moment we have discovered a small point mutation … and it is not absolutely clear if it will have clinical relevance,” Stockklausner said. “We have to wait for the complete sequencing.”
Neither the British nor South African variants have been shown to cause more deaths, although as a result of their ability to spread more easily, they have caused more infections, hospitalizations and, unfortunately, more deaths. Britain and Ireland, in particular, have seen a rapid spread of the mutant virus, which has led to an increase in infections and left some hospitals struggling with an influx of patients.
Information about the new variant found in Germany came on the same day that the country’s Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, stated that the current level of coronavirus sequencing in the country is not sufficient and that laboratories will be required (and compensated) to sequence coronavirus samples. to monitor the mutation virus.
A handful of other countries that have discovered coronavirus mutations, including the United Kingdom and South Africa, are known for their large-scale surveillance and genome sequencing of coronavirus samples.
Last week, Dr Janosch Dahmen, a German Green Party doctor and MP, told CNBC that “we need a more precise way of crisis here in Germany to fight the pandemic and I am very concerned about the number (of infections) will goes much higher, as we can see in the UK and Ireland at the moment. “
Infections persist
The 16 German state prime ministers are due to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday to discuss whether tightening restrictions will be tightened or extended across the country. on January 31.
The infection rate in Germany remains a significant concern, with another 11,369 daily cases reported on Tuesday by the public health agency, the Robert Koch Institute. This brings the total number of cases to just over 2 million. The death toll is 47,622.
Like other European countries, Germany has been eager to avoid the spread of more infectious strains of the virus found in the UK and South Africa.
Merkel allegedly told parliamentarians of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party last week that “if we fail to stop this British virus, then we will have 10 times the number of cases by Easter … We I still need eight to 10 weeks of tough action, “the German daily said image reported.
On Monday, Spahn insisted that people not call the coronavirus mutation detected in Britain “the English version”.
“Just as we didn’t talk about the ‘Chinese virus’ last year, now we shouldn’t talk about the ‘English version,'” Spahn told Reuters.