Brazil COVID-19 variant: Massachusetts announces first detected case

Massachusetts officials on Tuesday announced the news of the state’s first known case of the Brazilian variant of COVID-19.

According to the Department of Public Health, a woman in her thirties living in Barnstable County tested positive for COVID-19 in late February, and subsequent genetic sequencing found that she had the P.1 variant of the virus, which was the first times have been discovered. in December last year in Brazil.

DPH officials, who were notified of the order of results by the U.S. National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Monitoring System, said Tuesday that no information is available about the woman’s illness and whether she has traveled recently.

Researchers are still learning about the Brazilian variant, which since its discovery has fueled a record-breaking increase in cases and deaths due to COVID-19 in the South American country.

Preliminary studies have found that – like the other two known COVID-19 variants from the United Kingdom and South Africa – the mutated strain can be up to twice as contagious as the original version of the virus.

Researchers have also found that the Brazilian variant has the ability to reinfect individuals who have already had COVID-19 and may weaken the protective effects of a Chinese vaccine used in Brazil, as the New York Times recently reported.

However, the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine appears to remain very effective against the P.1. according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week. And while vaccine manufacturers are working on amplifiers to protect against emerging variants, researchers have found that the shots from Pfizer and Moderna still offer strong, if slightly lower, protection against the new strains.

DPH officials said on Tuesday that a total of 213 cases of the British variant, known as B.1.1.7, and six cases of the South African variant, known as B.1.351, had also been reported in Massachusetts.

Officials noted that the more common variant in the UK has also caused a rapid increase in cases in the UK, several other countries and parts of the United States. However, some experts are optimistic that the combination of declining cases and increasing vaccine coverage in the United States will result in the same type of variety-driven.

DPH noted on Tuesday that the “best defense against variants of concern is to prevent the spread of COVID.”

“This includes wearing a mask, social distance, avoiding groups, staying home when you are ill, being tested if you have symptoms or being identified as having close contact with someone with COVID, and being vaccinated if it’s your turn, “officials said. .