Alex Trelinski
THE ‘British’ strain of COVID-19 is accounting for 30% of coronavirus cases in the Valencian Community according to the regional health minister, Ana Barcelo.
She has nevertheless ruled out a call from the Valencia College of Nursing that the self-isolation period for people who have the strain should be raised from 10 to 14 days on the basis it has a high viral load later on during the infection.
Ana Barcelo said: “There are no plans in the Community or in the rest of Spain to extend quarantine periods.”
“It is the case that the British strain is becoming more prominent and more transmissible compare to what we had before, but we are carefully monitoring the situation.”
The first recorded case of the British variant in Alicante Province was in early January, after an Elche-based Spaniard returned home from a visit to the UK.
Barcelo added that predicting the development of the pandemic was a tricky task and admitted that the main counter to it was to make sure that preventative measures were in place.
The minister, along with president Ximo Puig, will make a decision tomorrow(March 11) on what loosening of restrictions will happen after the weekend.
The current package of restrictions in the Valencian Community are set to expire this Sunday(March 14) at 11.59 pm.
