Alabama health officials said they had confirmed three cases of the British coronavirus variant in the state, including two among residents under 19. The variant, identified as B.1.1.7, is considered more transmissible than others, and British researchers have previously warned that it may have a “higher tendency” to infect children.
The cases in Alabama involve two individuals from Montgomery County and one in Jefferson County. It is not clear what the division in ages is. The department of health did not elaborate on where transmission might have taken place, nor the conditions of the patients.
The strain, first detected in the UK late last year, is being studied by researchers worldwide to evaluate the impact it could have on vaccines, treatment and possible outbreaks. Pfizer and Moderna have agreed that their vaccines can remain effective against the new strain.
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None of the vaccines are currently approved for use in children, with Pfizer, which has been approved for use in people aged 16 and over in the US, recently enrolling for a clinical trial with children as young as 12, and Moderna only approved for use in the US for individuals 18 and older.
In December, Wendy Barclay, a professor involved in the UK’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) and a virology specialist at Imperial, told Reuters that the B.1.1.7. variant enters the human cell differently from other strains, which may indicate “that children may be just as susceptible to this virus as adults.”
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“Given their mixing patterns, you would therefore expect more children to become infected,” Barclay told Reuters.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, children between the ages of 0 and 17 make up just over 10% of the 19 million cases in the US. Of note, there is a difference of about 6 million cases between reporting from the CDC and Johns Hopkins University, which puts the total number of diseases in the US at just over 25.6 million.
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U.S. health experts also conceded that the number of different cases – which have been reported to the CDC in dozens of states – is likely to be underestimated as a result of monitoring the test.