RIGA, Mar 9 (LETA) - The new Covid-19 strain, first detected in the UK, is currently spreading at an increasing speed across Latvia, Jurijs Perevoscikovs, director of the Infectious Diseases Risk Analysis and Prevention Department at the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), told the government Tuesday. 

"Preliminary data suggests that the sequencing carried out at the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Center has produced positive results in 20 percent of cases," the epidemiologist said. The UK variant has also been found in 15 to 25 samples sequenced at E. Gulbis Laboratory. 

Perevoscikovs noted that the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Center's data reflect the situation around mid-February, until February 23, while data from E. Gulbis Laboratory are more recent - for the past week. 

As reported, the sequencing of 1,071 coronavirus samples in the last week of February, at least 9.34 percent of them proved to be the new UK strain of Covid-19, Miks Gavars, a specialist at E. Gulbis Laboratory, informed at an emergency government meeting today.

He pointed out that the widest prevalence of the new UK Covid-19 variant was found in Riga, where 28 cases of the new UK strain were discovered. The prevalence of this virus mutation is also in Preili - 17 cases, Gulbene - 11, Jelgava - eight, Balvi - six, Madona and Salaspils - four each, Kuldiga and Daugavpils - three each, Livani and Lubana - two each, and one in each of Sigulda, Adazi , Jurmala, Ogre, Dobele, Cesis, Kekava, Kraslava and Rezekne.

Janis Klovins, Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Latvian Center for Biomedical Research and Studies, evaluating the results of sequencing test samples, pointed out that the percentage of the new UK Covid-19 variant has increased from 1 percent to 8 percent in a month and a half. This means that cases of the new UK strain are increasing gradually and there is no explosive outbreak.

Earlier, the Center for Disease Prevention and Control indicated that the new Covid-19 variant, which was first discovered in the UK, does not cause more severe symptoms than the original coronavirus strain but that it is much more easily transmissible.