© Travis Long / Zuma Press
A highly contagious coronavirus variant first identified in the UK is spreading rapidly in the US and is likely to become the dominant strain circulating domestically in March without delay, federal health officials said.
Health officials on Friday called for increased measures, such as wearing masks and social distance to limit the spread of the more contagious variant. Otherwise, it will intensify the pressure on hospitals struggling to treat serious cases.
A year after a new coronavirus was detected in Wuhan, China, the pandemic it causes has reached a dangerous point. There are now vaccines to stop it, but the rollout in the US was slow and new, faster spreading variants of the virus now threaten a surge in disease.
The B.1.1.7 variant has infected at least 76 people in 12 states since January 13 and threatens to exacerbate the pandemic in the US in the coming months, as the number of daily cases and hospitalizations is already at record levels, US centers have for disease control and prevention said in a report modeling the potential impact of the variant.
“We expect these numbers to rise in the coming weeks,” Jay Butler, the CDC’s deputy director for infectious diseases, said in an interview.
The variant could stimulate exponential growth in new cases, and by the end of March will become the dominant tribe if no more social measures are put in place to stop it, said Michael Johansson, a biologist and model for the CDC’s Covid-19 response , said.
Although the new variant does not cause more serious diseases, it is more contagious than the currently predominant strain of the coronavirus, the CDC said.
This means it could lead to more hospitalizations and deaths by infecting more people in general, the agency said, which could exacerbate the pressure on healthcare systems that are already at or near capacity.
The CDC has a short period of time to wear measures such as social distance and masks to prevent B.1.1.7 from spreading. Such precautions will also buy time for vaccinations to influence campaigns, the agency said.
That means people have to wear masks, keep at least 6 feet away from others, avoid crowds, wash hands and get vaccinated, the CDC said.
The new variant is thought to be 50% more transmissible than the current dominant species in the US, but agency experts said they believe existing prevention strategies work.
“If you are not wearing a mask, or if you get a little lax about it because you get tired of wearing the mask, I encourage you to wear the mask,” said Dr. Butler said.
He urged the same endurance to avoid getting along with people outside their own household: “This is by no means the time to leave.”
“It does not mean that businesses or things like that should be closed, but that we should take steps to be able to protect ourselves and limit our contact with others,” said Dr. Butler said.
The CDC has also warned healthcare systems to prepare for an even bigger boom, saying people who do not have Covid-19 symptoms but have the risk of infection should be tested.
According to Pfizer Inc. and Modern Inc. the vaccines against Covid-19 should work against the new variant, which authorizes the two shots for use in the United States. However, as researchers study the case, the spread of the new variant means that about 80% of the population needs to be vaccinated to stop Covid-19, CDC scientists said. This is about 10 percentage points higher than some federal officials originally expected.
The agency monitors whether other new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus appear in the US, Dr. Butler said. The agency recently issued an order that all international air passengers to the US must test negative for Covid-19 within three days before their flight.
The CDC and other health care institutions are increasing genomic surveillance to better detect cases of the new variant. The agency set up a new SARS-CoV-2 surveillance program in November and is working with other health care agencies to promote surveillance.
Laboratories now track approximately 6,000 positive SARS-CoV-2 samples per week in the U.S., said Gregory Armstrong, director of the CDC’s advanced molecular detection program. More than 200,000 people currently test positive every day in the US
“We think it is more than we need to pick up new and emerging variants, but we have the ability to increase it,” said Dr. Armstrong said.
Write to Betsy McKay at [email protected]
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