Delta and alpha strains of Covid-19 detected in Azerbaijan

Alpha and delta strains of Covid-19 were found in Azerbaijan

On July 13, 31 cases of infection with the delta strain and 9 cases of infection with the alpha strain (British strain) of coronavirus were detected in Azerbaijan. The country’s Ministry of Health urged citizens to get vaccinated. But will vaccines save you from new strains and what do the medical professionals have to say about it?

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“The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, which has lasted for over a year, is an important public health problem worldwide and poses serious social and economic threats. The latest mutation variants of the coronavirus are causes of great concern.

As part of the measures taken to control the epidemiological situation in our country, the Genetic Diagnostics Center of the National Center for Hematology and Transfusiology regularly studies genetic variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

As a result of the research, strain B.1.617 (Delta) was found in 31 samples taken from persons who arrived from abroad, and variant B.1.1.7 (20 Alpha V1, Great Britain) – in 9 samples”, the joint the statement of the Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan, the State Agency for Compulsory Health Insurance and the Association for the Management of Medical Territorial Subdivisions (TƏBIB).

The organizations responsible for the state of health care in the country urged citizens to get vaccinated.

“An analysis of the results of studies carried out in the world and in our country has once again shown that the most effective way to protect against new and rapidly spreading dangerous variants of the virus is vaccination. Today we owe the vaccination to a stable epidemiological situation in our country. We once again call on all our citizens to get vaccinated without delay”, the address to the population says.

Epidemiological situation in Azerbaijan

For more than a month, the situation with coronavirus infection in Azerbaijan has remained stable. In recent days there has been a slight increase in the daily number of infected, but according to doctors, the situation is quite controlled.

Currently, there are only about 1,600 patients with cornavirus throughout the country.

Vaccination in Azerbaijan

As of July 13, 2021, 24.9% of the country’s total population was vaccinated with the first dose of coronavirus vaccines in Azerbaijan and 16.6% of the population received both doses of the vaccine.

There are currently four types of coronavirus vaccines available in the country.

Expert opinion

According to doctor Suleiman Nazarov, like the coronavirus itself, its individual strains are poorly understood.

“Everyone needs to understand that specialists, in most cases, also give out only partially verified information. The reasons for this are simple: the infection is new, not fully understood, and with vaccines, the situation is completely tragicomic.

Sometimes some of my colleagues cite some kind of duration of the vaccine, its effect on certain strains. This is all information based on average statistical data not related to the coronavirus itself”, the expert said in an interview with JAMnews.

“According to accepted international standards, the quality of a vaccine can only be discussed after 5 years from the date of its appearance. It is during this period that all phases of testing a new vaccine are completed. But vaccines against coronavirus have just appeared, the “oldest” of them is not even one year old. Therefore, it is still very early to talk about any of their qualities. There is simply no data required for this.

But what can we advise in the current situation? Only to get vaccinated. For this is the only way out of the situation so far. I would not call the existing vaccines a drowning straw. They are already showing positive statistics in countries where people are massively vaccinated. Therefore, apart from the vaccine, we cannot advise anything else. At the moment, this is the only thing that can really save us”, Nazarov added.