Clusters at boxing stadium, entertainment venue 'same virus species'
The Sars-CoV-2 virus, which caused Covid-19 disease, found in a boxing stadium cluster and entertainment venue clusters were same species, Dr Yong Poovorawan, an expert virologist at Chulalongkorn University, said in a personal Facebook post.
After tracking down the strains of Covid-19 that have spread in Thailand from more than 30 genetic transcripts, the coronavirus found in January in Thailand was an L-type (leucine) that came from Wuhan in China. Later In March, at the boxing stadium and the Thonglor entertainment venue, the same strain was found as S-type (serine) species.
The rumour that the virus in the boxing stadium was stronger than in Thonglor was not true at all and both of them did not come from Italy since they are L-type (found only among people returning from Italy)
Outbreaks in Bangkok in March until now are type S (serine) rather than type L (leucine).
Besides, there are some species believed to be imported from Singapore (type L).
As for severity, it seems to be due to patient factors. Boxing stadium clusters are probably more at risk because of age and other factors.
“We are currently tracking various species. If possible, we would like to know about southern species especially when people return from Indonesia to see the direction of the outbreak.”