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ARGENTINA | 24-08-2021 19:18

Delta case of community circulation detected in Buenos Aires Province

Authorities in Buenos Aires Province identify first case of Delta variant contagion via community circulation in the region.

The Buenos Aires Province government confirmed Wednesday that a case of Delta variant contagion via community circulation had been identified in the southern Greater Buenos Aires district of Lanús.

Others at the individual’s place of work in the City of Buenos Aires also picked up the virus, revealed Buenos Aires Province Health Minister Nicolás Kreplak, adding: "It’s a case of a person who has not travelled, i.e. community transmission."

"There are two other cases of community transmission with families in Greater Buenos Aires detected in the City with their families figuring as close contacts. We are trying to ascertain whether any of these has the Delta variant but for now we have found nothing," added Kreplak, warning: "The community transmission has begun."

During the press conference in the Buenos Aires provincial capital of La Plata, the minister said that there are currently 58 confirmed cases of the Delta variant of coronavirus, of whom 55 are returned travellers who are mostly in strict isolation in hotels while two others are members of their families who managed to contract the virus before they began their isolation. 

Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof urged City Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta to isolate everybody returning from abroad in hotels: "We call for all precautions to be applied, no matter how unpleasant."

Lanús Health Secretary Gustavo Sieli affirmed that an epidemiological tracking of the 39-year-old patient had been carried out in order to identify the origin of the contagion. It was confirmed that neither the man nor his family had established contact with other neighbours following infection.

“The nuclear family is evolving correctly,” informed Sieli in radio interview on Tuesday, following confirmation of the case.

Earlier on Wednesday, National Health Minister Carla Vizzotti had clarified that although community circulation of the Delta strain is now considered a fact, it did not “predominate” but accounted for a minor number of cases.

 Nevertheless, the health officials at different levels take it for granted that this variant of the virus will expand.

Last Monday the second person infected with the coronavirus strain born in India died in Córdoba – a woman of 38 infected by the "zero patient" (a man of 62) who had shunned quarantine and died last weekend. Both had decided against vaccination.

“We’re following the evolution of the Delta variant very closely and we will continue isolating return travellers. Today we have to say that we are on the brink of having community circulation of the Delta variant but it does not predominate. The predominant strain is [the] Manaus [strain],” Vizzotti from told Radio 10.

 

– TIMES/NA/PERFIL

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