Covid-19 in Bulgaria: Delta variant found in 466 sequenced samples – NCIPD
Bulgaria’s National Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases (NCIPD) said that it has completed the sequencing of 467 samples taken from Covid-19 patients in the country, with all but one of them showing the Delta variant.
The samples had been taken over a period of time ranging from September 20 to October 7 and came from 23 out of Bulgaria’s 28 districts. This included one sample taken a from foreign national, although NCIPD did not clarify if the person tested was a permanent resident, tourist or in transit.
As of October 13, 14 patients who had been shown by the sequencing to have had the Delta variant had died, 68 were in hospital, 300 were undergoing home treatment and 85 had recovered.
One sample showed the Alpha variant of the virus and the patient had recovered, according to the NCIPD data. This was the first instance that an Alpha variant case was detected in Bulgaria in a month.
NCIPD said that 232 cases it sequenced showed the Delta strain of the virus, collectively designated B.1.617.2 by the World Health Organisation.
The other cases were attributed to separate individual lineages of that variant as follows: AY.4 (123), AY.9 (86), AY.5 (nine), AY.4.1 (six), AY.21 (three), two each of AY.13, AY.26 and AY.34, as well as one case of AY.38.
The largest number of samples came from the city of Sofia (103), followed by the districts of Bourgas (85), Plovdiv (49) and Stara Zagora (42).
The one sample from the foreign national was taken in the district of Varna.
(Photo: Military Medical Academy)
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