Epidemiologists have their eye on a variant of concern that arose in Brazil, called P.1. Lineage P.1, also known as 20J/501Y.V3, Variant of Concern 202101/02 (VOC-202101/02) or colloquially known as the Brazil(ian) variant, is one of the variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This variant of SARS-CoV-2 has been named lineage P.1 and has 17 unique amino acid changes, ten of which are in its spike protein, including these three designated to be of particular concern: N501Y, E484K, and K417T. This variant of SARS-CoV-2 was first detected by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), in early January of 2021.
According to the COVID-19 Data Repository by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University, Brazil recorded a shattering +80,588 new cases today, followed by 1,086 new deaths.
The COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE was able to successfully neutralize the variant, according to a laboratory study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Research is ongoing as to whether the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will provide immunity against the P.1 variant.
Data for the choropleth map and data table represent COVID-19 cases and deaths for Brazil as of March 08, 2021.
Sources: The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, JHU CSSE COVID-19 Data, Reuters, The New York Times, and Wikipedia.