“The new BA.1.22 lineage is the product of the natural evolution of the virus in the Peruvian population and has been identified mainly in the Tacna region, but cases have already been detected in Loreto, Arequipa, Moquegua, Puno and Lima,” said the official. ministry in a statement.
The genomic surveillance team of the National Institute of Health (INS) detected this new lineage that does not present new or different mutations to the previous ones (or previously registered) in omicron.
With this finding, there are already ten lineages that have been identified and proposed by the genomic surveillance laboratory of the National Institute of Health Peru for registration and have been accepted by the PANGO international committee in the United Kingdom.
“Genomic surveillance is used to make public health decisions and strengthen control of the epidemic in the face of the emergence of new mutants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the national territory,” said the head of this laboratory, Carlos Padilla.
The National Institute of Health highlighted that, since the arrival of the omicron variant in Peru in December, genomic sequencing has made it possible to observe the new changes or mutations that this variant suffers due to the multiple infections registered.
The Ministry of Health indicated in its latest information that 240 cases of covid-19 were registered and 5 people died for this reason during this Tuesday.
Regarding vaccines, Peru adds 16.2 million people immunized with the three doses, which represents 56.9% of its population.
The entrance Peru identifies a new lineage of the omicron variant of covid-19 was first published in diary TODAY.
