California announced its first confirmed case of the apparently more contagious new variant of the coronavirus on Wednesday, the second documented case in the United States in a day.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the infection discovered in Southern California during an online conversation with Dr.Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“I don’t think Californians should think this is weird. This is to be expected, ”Fauci said.
Newsom did not provide any further details about the infected person.
The first person in the United States known to be infected with the variant was identified on Wednesday as a Colorado national guard who had been sent to help at a nursing home struggling with an outbreak. Health officials said a second member of the Guard may have it too.
The cases have sparked a host of questions about how the version circulating in England got to the United States and if it is too late to stop it now, with top experts saying it is probably already spreading elsewhere in the United States. United States.
“The virus is getting better and better, and we are like a deer in the headlights,” warned Dr Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. He noted that the United States performs much less genetic sequencing of virus samples to discover variants than other developed countries and therefore was likely slow to detect this new mutation.
The two members of the Guard were sent on December 23 to work at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in the small town of Simla, in a predominantly rural area about 90 miles from Denver, Dr Rachel Herlihy said. , state epidemiologist. They were among six members of the Guard sent home.
Nasal swab samples taken from the two as part of the Guard’s routine coronavirus testing were sent to the state lab, which began researching the variant after it was announced that it was spreading in Britain more earlier this month, Herlihy said. Samples from nursing home staff and residents are also being examined for the variant in the lab, but so far no evidence of this has been found, she said.
The confirmed Colorado case, first announced on Tuesday, involves a man in his 20s who had not recently traveled, officials said. He is showing mild symptoms and is isolating himself at his home near Denver, while the suspected person is self-isolating at a Colorado hotel while further DNA analysis is performed on his sample, officials said.
The nursing home said it is working closely with the state and is also looking forward to starting vaccinations next week.
Several states, including California, Massachusetts and Delaware, are also analyzing samples of suspected viruses for the variant, said Dr Greg Armstrong, who leads genetic sequencing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said the CDC was working with a national lab that obtains samples from across the country to expand that research, with results expected in days.
The Colorado discovery heightened the urgency of the country’s vaccination campaign against COVID-19, which has killed more than 340,000 people in the United States.
Britain sees infections skyrocket and hospitalizations reach their highest level on record. The variant has also been found in several other countries.
Scientists have found no evidence that it is more deadly or causes more serious disease, and they believe that the vaccines currently issued will be effective against it. But a faster spreading virus could overwhelm hospitals with critically ill patients.
The overseas discovery led the CDC to issue rules on Christmas Day requiring travelers arriving from Britain to show evidence of a negative COVID-19 test. But U.S. health officials have said the patient’s lack of travel history from Colorado suggests the new variant is already spreading there.
Topol said it was too late for the travel bans.
“We are behind in his search. Colorado is probably one of the many places he ended up here, ”he said. “It’s everywhere. How can you ban travel from anywhere? “
Colorado public health officials are conducting contact tracing to determine its spread.
Researchers estimate the variant to be 50% to 70% more contagious, said Dr Eric France, chief medical officer for Colorado.
“Instead of only making two or three other people sick, you could actually pass it on to four or five people,” France said. “This means we will have more cases in our communities. This number of cases will increase rapidly, and of course with more cases there will be more hospitalizations.
London and the south-east of England were placed under strict lockdowns earlier this month due to the variant, and dozens of countries have banned flights from Britain. France also briefly banned trucks from Britain before allowing them to re-enter, provided the drivers had been tested for the virus.
New versions of the virus have been seen almost since it was first detected in China a year ago. It is common for viruses to undergo minor changes as they reproduce and travel through a population. The fear is that the mutations will at some point become large enough to defeat vaccines.
South Africa has also discovered a highly contagious variant of COVID-19 that is behind the country’s latest spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
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Johnson reported from Washington state.
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