The National Council of Health Secretariats of Brazil confirmed on Thursday that the country registered 79,219 new cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours. | Photo: Andina

Brasilia, May 20 (RHC)-- The Secretary of Health of the state of Marañao, Carlos Eduardo Lula and president of the National Council of Health Secretaries (Conass) of Brazil, confirmed this Thursday from his official Twitter account, the presence in the country of the first cases of the Indian variant of COVID-19.

According to the official, the infected persons came from South Africa and arrived on a ship that had been in isolation since May 15th in the port of São Luis, Marañao state, and after clinical examinations of the crew, it was found that initially the B.1.617 variant had infested six of the personnel.

One of the infected remains in a hospital in San Luis, while 14 other crew members, who also tested positive for COVID-19, remain on the ship, most of them asymptomatic and only two with mild symptoms.  Nine other crew members tested negative for the virus.

Brazilian health authorities will also carry out clinical tests on at least a hundred people who have had contact with this crew, which is still isolated in the port of San Luis and accompanied by health personnel.

The National Council of Health Secretariats of Brazil confirmed this Thursday that the country registered 79,219 new cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours, which brings the total number of infections to 15 million 812,055.  In turn, the institution registered 2,641 deaths caused by this disease, accumulating a total of 441,691 deaths caused by the new coronavirus.

Variant B 1,617, discovered in India in December, has reached 51 countries and Brazil is the second Latin American country to detect it, after Argentina, explained Carlos Eduardo Lula, regional Secretary of Health, to the local press on Thursday.