Index.hr reports that the first three cases of the UK coronavirus mutation B.1.1.7 were confirmed in Croatia today. The samples were sequenced at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases “Dr. Fran Mihaljevic,” the Ministry of Health announced.
According to Ivan-Christian Kurolt, who performed the sequencing with co-workers, these are mutations in the spike protein (HV69/70 deletion, Y144 deletion, N501Y, A570D, P681H, and T716I.
As of January 20, a total of 61 samples were sequenced at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases – 27 from Zagreb and Zagreb County, 16 samples from Brod-Posavina County, eight from Virovitica-Podravina County, six from Sisak-Moslavina County, and four from Bjelovar-Bilogora County.
Mutations were found in samples of a 50-year-old man and a 3.5-year-old child from Zagreb, and a 34-year-old man from Brod-Posavina County.
Epidemiologists from the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) have been informed about everything, and they will collect additional epidemiological data from patients and their contacts who are in isolation.
According to the Ministry of Health, all three samples were also sent to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) as part of the shipment, which was sent today from the Croatian Public Health Institute with samples from various parts of Croatia.
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