Brazilian with Covid from Africa is isolated at home in Guarulhos

The Brazilian who passed through South Africa and tested positive for Covid-19 after disembarking at Guarulhos airport is in isolation at home, according to the city hall of Greater São Paulo, where he resides.

According to Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency), the test of the 28-year-old passenger was sent for sequencing at the Adolfo Lutz Institute. The result, which will tell if he is infected or not by the omicron variant, should be released until this Tuesday (30).

In a statement, the state’s Epidemiological Surveillance said it was informed on Sunday (28) that a passenger coming from Ethiopia tested positive for Covid-19 at the airport in Guarulhos and that the case is monitored by the surveillance of the municipality of Guarulhos, where the patient lives .

The agency also claims that he has a complete vaccination schedule and has been in isolation since his arrival. The passenger had no symptoms and, having passed through South Africa —the country where the new variant was first identified—, he sought testing at the airport.

“The Center for Strategic Information on Health Surveillance of São Paulo and Anvisa have already asked the airline for a list of passengers to assist in the detection and tracking of potential contacts,” stated the State Department of Health.

Earlier, during an event at the TCM (Court of Accounts of the Municipality), the mayor of São Paulo, Ricardo Nunes (MDB), said that the city is preparing to follow up on possible cases, as it did with the delta variant, which had the first patient confirmed with the strain in July.

The Municipal Health Department said it would hold a meeting this Monday with the entire technical staff of the folder, health surveillance and hospital directors to discuss how to strengthen monitoring.

“This is an ongoing work to assess the pandemic that, this Monday, will give special attention to the new variant discovered, within the powers and scope of municipal health authorities,” said the secretariat, in a statement.

The secretariat also said that, in addition to the collection of samples, sent weekly for analysis, genomic sequencing and monitoring of cases, under the responsibility of the Butantan Institutes, of Tropical Medicine at USP, and Adolfo Lutz, collections of suspected (symptomatic) patients will be carried out. Africa and other countries informed by the Ministry of Health.

“The entire health network in the city has already been instructed to question every symptomatic patient if they have been in Africa in the last 14 days and, if the answer is yes, then the collected sample will be sent for sequencing”, says an excerpt of the note.

According to the municipal secretariat, whoever presents with symptoms of the disease will have the sample collected and sent for genotyping. “Last week, the city hall already expanded its research and genotyping activities with the Butantan Institute, carrying out, in places with great circulation, random collections from asymptomatic patients”, he stated.

“We are with our team on alert with all the analysis and monitoring, as is customary here in the city of São Paulo,” said the mayor. According to him, the municipal secretary of Health, Edson Aparecido, spoke this Monday with the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, about possible actions.

TO Sheet, Aparecido said that for the time being he has ruled out setting up sanitary barriers at the city’s three bus terminals and at Congonhas airport, as occurred between May and October, because of the delta variant, in which around 8,000 passengers were monitored.

“We are talking to the Ministry of Health and the state government to monitor the situation,” said Aparecido.

Regarding the release of the use of masks in open places, Nunes said that he will await the results of a serological inquiry, which should be delivered by the 5th of the month, to find out if he will follow the state government, which intends to make the use of the item more flexible. protection on the 11th. “We always took actions based on the studies of Health Surveillance,” he said.

“Be a secretary [de Saúde] talk to postpone, I’ll postpone,” he said.

When asked about the cancellation of New Year’s Eve in Salvador, Nunes said that he will wait for technical data but that today there is no need to act. “We are attentive. If there is any health risk for the city of São Paulo, I will have no problem canceling any situation,” he said.

Asked about the possibility of postponing the flexibility of masks, the João Doria government (PSDB) said that mandatory use will continue indoors and on public transport.

“Any and every measure adopted in the State to fight the pandemic is preceded by technical analyzes with the Scientific Committee and the PEI [Plano Estadual de Imunização], in the light of the disease indicators”, states the State Health Department, in a note.