ISS, October 1st 2021
EMBARGOED UNTIL 16.30 HOURS OF TODAY 1 OCTOBER
According to the COVID-19 Integrated Surveillance System, in Italy in the last 45 days, 98.4% of sequenced swabs tested positive for the Delta variant (as against 88.7% recorded in the Newsletter of 17 September). The Alpha variant, on the other hand, has almost totally disappeared, being at 0.1% (again in the last 45 days, while in the previous Newsletter it was at 0.4%). The data are contained in the tenth Newsletter of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità – ISS (Italian National Institute of Health), "Prevalence and distribution of SARS-CoV-2 variants of public health interest in Italy", and refer to the sequences deposited between 14 August and 27 September 2021 on the I-Co-Gen platform.
- With a total of 8,596 genotyped / sequenced cases, reported to the COVID-19 Integrated Surveillance System in the last 45 days (14 August - 27 September 2021), in Italy the number of genotyped / sequenced cases increased slightly over the previous period (8,255 cases in the period 31 July - 13 September 2021).
- The platform for the genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 (I-Co-Gen) variants, developed and coordinated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità – ISS (Italian National Institute of Health), has been in operation since 29 April 2021. The platform allows to collect and analyse the sequences identified on the national territory and to interact with international platforms. The module, dedicated to the analysis and sharing of SARS-CoV-2 sequencing data nationwide, currently counts more than 53,000 sequences
- In the last 45 days, among the lineages not monitored by the COVID-19 Integrated Surveillance System, and identified in I-Co-Gen, less than 1% is represented by the VUM (Variant under Monitoring - lineages: B. 1.1.318) and the VOI (Variant of Interest - lineages: B.1.621), the Mu variant, C.37, C.37.1 and the Lambda variant. In particular, no case has been identified in the last 45 days of the Mu variant. However, it is essential to continually monitor these variants to quickly identify any emerging threats
