Nobody in Moldova, Europe’s poorest country, has received a Covid jab yet as the healthcare system is unable to cope.
“Iam happy to work on the frontline and to see the Canadian medical system function so well,” Alecu Mătrăgună wrote in a Facebook post, “but I am sad that I was vaccinated before my mother, who works in the medical system in Moldova.”
Mătrăgună is a Moldovan sonographer living in Montreal.
His mother is 61 and a paediatrician with more than 30 years’ service under her belt.
Yet, he said, she has no idea when the Covid-19 vaccine might become available for her and for more than 53,300 other healthcare staff in Europe’s poorest country.
This came as the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that a new coronavirus “variant of interest” named Mu, also known by its scientific name as B.1.621.
The health organisation further said it closely monitors the new variant’s spread.
The mu SARS-CoV-2 strain first appeared in Colombia in January, as a “variant of interest.”
Since then, there have been “sporadic reports” of cases and outbreaks in South America and Europe.
Variants of interest have genetic changes that affect virus characteristics including transmissibility, disease severity and immune escape.
According to the WHO, variants of interest differ from variants of concern. The later can cause a decrease in effectiveness of public health measures, vaccines or therapeutics.
