Dr. Koliou: The measures have started working - Let's wait for official data

"It's not like the flu virus that comes completely different and we need a new vaccine"

14410aff30bdbf5ac724732b8680cbbd Coronavirus, Dr. Κολιού

The First Broadcast of Radio Proto hosted the member of the epidemiological team of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Maria Koliou, who spoke about the new strain of the virus that upset Europe, but also about the epidemiological picture of Cyprus.

He initially said that we should not be intimidated by the coronary mutation, as it has been present in the UK since September. "We need to start genetically analyzing viruses and move on to more analysis."

He added that the vaccine response did not appear to be affected. "It's not like the flu virus that comes completely different and we need a new vaccine." He explained that it does not appear to be more dangerous than the previous form of the virus.

He clarified that there is no question of differentiating the cases of the coronavirus with its mutation. "Usually one to two strains of the virus prevail that have more advantages for survival."

Regarding the ban on flights from the United Kingdom, he clarified that if such a thing happens, there will be a reaction, as Cypriot citizens and students will not be able to come back. "We need to find other alternative measures to prevent the risk, such as categorizing countries."

He then spoke about the measures in force, stressing that they have begun to work. "In order to be able to draw conclusions, we have to wait for the official epidemiological curves." He added that Cyprus is doing a lot of tests with the result that it finds several positives.

Finally, he said that as an epidemiological group they have not submitted their proposals for Christmas.

Source: Sigmalive