Dr. Karagiannis: Concern over the introduction of a South African executive in Cyprus

Concern for the introduction of the South African mutant strain of the coronavirus in Cyprus, expresses the member of the Advisory Scientific Committee, Professor of Microbiology / Molecular Virology of the Medical School of the University of Nicosia Dr. Petros Karagiannis.

In his statements to KYPE, Dr. Karagiannis said that we do not have special air transport with South Africa, but could come to the country if someone travels through a third airport to Cyprus and brings us the virus in this way. It can also be done, either from European countries where the virus has spread.

"We have heard that he is also in Thessaloniki. At the moment it is not clear where the priest is stuck. It is a matter of tracking now to see exactly how the virus entered Greece and to whom it has been transmitted ", he noted.

He said surveillance measures at airports should be intensified. "The only way to take precaution is what is currently being done at the airports of Cyprus under close surveillance. The tests for those who come to us, the quarantine for those who should, in order to avoid the introduction of the virus on the island ", he added.

He explained that the South African strain is somewhat different from the English strain. "They have some common mutations, but also some that differ from each other. "These mutations concern the AKIDA protein, which is on the surface of the cell and which is responsible for the binding of the virus to the cell and then the transfer of the virus into the cell for its multiplication," he explained.

Some of these mutations, he continued, involve the part of the protein that binds to the receptor and may make this binding easier and more efficient. "That is why the most widespread transmission of these two executives is observed. "There is more information about the English executive than about the South African," he noted.

Asked if it was more deadly, the South African official said that "so far the statement of the British Prime Minister that it may be more deadly has not been verified. Scientists, at least in Britain, do not agree with this conclusion because, first of all, not enough patients were monitored to make this clear. By extension we have to wait. "But from what I estimate, that does not seem to be the case," he said.

Asked to what extent the English strain of the virus is widespread in Cyprus, he said that we do not know. "Of the results announced in December, only one case was reported in 25 in the community, so transmission was limited at the time," he said.

The epidemiological picture has improved, further falling in the coming days

Dr. Karagiannis said that the epidemiological picture in Cyprus, in terms of the number of cases has stabilized in recent days around 100. "We hope to see a further decline. "If not so many tests were done daily, we might have had double-digit numbers, but with the 25,000 tests done in the last few days, it is next that we will detect more cases."

He stressed the need to apply the measures and protocols to companies that are reactivated so that we do not have side effects. "The lockdown measures paid off. We managed to reduce the number of cases from 900 to about 100. This took six to seven weeks to do with the two phases of the restrictive measures. I expect that they will fall even lower in the coming days and if there is a problem we will see in two or three weeks. "The other encouraging thing is that hospital admissions have dropped, while there has been a small drop in intensive care units," he added.