The Centro Universitário Faculdade de Medicina do ABC (FMABC) reported today (28) that researchers from the faculty confirmed the presence of the BQ 1.1.17 and BQ 1.18 strains of the BQ.1 subvariant of the coronavirus in Brazil. According to the university center, the infected patients live in Santo André and São Caetano do Sul, in Greater São Paulo.
Since September 2021, the university center has been assisting surveillance agencies in monitoring covid-19. Cases of lineages that had not yet been detected in Brazil were identified in a batch of nine samples. Most were people infected with the BA.5 variant, with three being the BQ.1 subvariant.
People contaminated by the new strains had mild symptoms of covid-19. There is no information that the new lineages are more transmissible or generate more serious effects than the currently predominant ones.
