Indian variant of coronavirus to hit Hungary "within moments" - former CMO

Falus said the following (highlights):

We'll see what the re-opening of the terraces of restaurants, bars and cafés had on coronavirus infections in seven to ten days.

He has warned that an immunity certificat does not mean the bearer of the plastic card is immune to SARS-CoV-2. When terraces were re-opened on 24 April, there should have been a 2-metre safety distance between tables and no more than four people should have been allowed to sit at one table, said Falus. This is no time for big reunions yet, he warned.

He is also recommending everyone to wear FFP2 (N95, KN95) masks in enclosed spaces, also warning against wearing home-made textile masks.

Experience so far shows that local authorities have the capacity to vaccinate 70,000 to 160,000 people per day, i.e. with the first and second doses combined. This means that up to three million people could be vaccinated within a month, said Falus.

He reminded that vaccines give you protection for roughly six months and Hungary should be prepared to give booster shots to health care workers and it should start looking into when everyone would need a third jab.

Falus admitted he is "fundamentally extremely pessimistic" in relation to the Indian 'double mutant', saying we do not know for sure which vaccine gives what protection against it.

While the Indian variant appeared in many samples in the United Kingdom, B.1.1.7 (a.k.a. the UK variant) remains dominant there. It has a rather contagious but we don't know it yet if it is more infectious than B.1.1.7, he added.

Falus warned that the Indian variant will appear in Hungary 'within moments'.

The new variant, called B.1.617, was initially detected in India with two mutations -- the E484Q (present in the variants first detected in South Africa and Brazil (that mutation is called E484K)) and L452R (also present in the dominant strain in California). Both mutations are known to decrease -- although not completely eliminate -- the binding of the antibodies created by infection and vaccination. In fact, B.1.617 has two "famous" mutations. But it also has about 11 other ones as well.

“Mutations at sites E484 and L452 have been observed separately, but this is the first major viral lineage that combines the two," said Jesse Bloom, an associate professor for genome sciences and microbiology at the University of Washington. Preliminary evidence suggests that B.1.617 is more contagious than previous strains of the virus. 

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