Tunisian health authorities announced on Saturday that they had discovered a new variant of Covid-19 in the country.
“Two people have tested positive for a new variant of Covid-19 in the governorate of Tunis,” said Director General of Health Faycel Ben Salah at a press conference.
He added that the sequencing and identification operation was continuing in accordance with the recommendations in force.
The same source said that the preliminary results of the analyzes did not show any particular dangerousness of the mutated version.
For his part, Hechmi Louzir, director of the Institut Pasteur and member of the scientific committee for the fight against the coronavirus, announced that a case of death from this new variant had been recorded in Tunis.
A study in progress
He is in his seventies, tested negative before finding that he was a carrier of the new variant, the same source noted in press statements.
“We cannot scientifically demonstrate that the death is linked to contamination by the new variant of Covid-19”, he noted, stressing that the person was suffering from cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
He said that a team of researchers from the Pasteur Institute had carried out partial genetic analyzes on the coronavirus and detected a new local variant of the virus, taken from the deceased septuagenarian.
The official added that the same variant was found in a 17-year-old young man in Oued Ellil, who had no symptoms.
