On Monday, there were four confirmed cases in Southern California of the new, more contagious strain of SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes Covid-19. By Tuesday, officials had announced that the number had jumped to at least 26.
Twenty-four confirmed and four probable cases of the more contagious strain of SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have been identified in San Diego County, the region’s agency for health and human services announced Tuesday.
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San Diego’s 24 confirmed cases of the variant that first appeared in the United Kingdom – known as B.1.1.7 – along with two previously identified in San Bernardino County, bring the total of Southern California to at least 26 According to health officials, the infections appear to be almost equally distributed between men and women. The new strain is, according to one estimate, 50-70% more contagious than the ore-widespread variety.
The rapid increase in hospitalizations in the UK due to B.1.1.7 forced the country’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, to close the whole country on Monday.
Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon also announced a closure in her country on Monday. Wales and Northern Ireland are already under strict lockdown.
The new tribe has reportedly been identified in at least 33 states and four U.S. states, including Colorado, Florida, Georgia, New York and California.
Gavin Newsom, governor of California, said the state was analyzing certain samples by genome sequencing but had not yet discovered any B.1.1.7 infections.
The new Southern California total contains at least 24 cases confirmed by whole genome sequence and four probable cases that are directly linked to the confirmed cases and have positive diagnostic nucleic acid tests, but have not yet been followed up.
The two dozen new cases are confirmed Jan. 4 from samples collected from Dec. 27 to Dec. 31 and tested in San Diego Laboratory by Helix and his partner Illumina under an observation project for disease control and prevention centers.
There were no COVID-19 deaths associated with B.1.1.7, but one woman had to be admitted to the hospital. She is now at home recovering.
The 24 newly infected Californians apparently have no travel history related to the infection. They apparently come from 19 different households, but investigations and contact tracing continue.
The new cases have been identified in San Diego, Chula Vista, La Mesa and Lakeside. The infections involve several age groups. While the four youngest cases are younger than 10 and the oldest is older than 70, the average age of the different cases so far is 36, the same as the total average for all confirmed cases so far.
The data seems to be inconsistent with a recent study from the UK that appears to point to B.1.1.7 among younger people, but of course the sample size of California so far is small.
“The fact that these cases have been identified in several parts of the region shows that this virus strain can spread rapidly,” said Wilma Wooten, managing director of MPH County. “People need to be extra careful to prevent and spread COVID-19, especially this variant, which is more contagious according to research.”
The variant was first identified on Dec. 30 in a San Diego man in his 30s. He had no apparent travel history. Three additional cases were announced on December 31st. No B.1.1.7 infections have yet been identified in Los Angeles County, but as of Tuesday, LA health officials have tested only 80 samples out of the 840,611 total positive Covid-19 cases identified to date in the country.
The director of public health in LA, dr. Barbara Ferrer, said that Angelenos should assume that the new variant is loose in the country.
San Diego County has asked all testing labs that have the ability to identify suspicious cases of the new strain to send genomic sequence samples to determine if they are cases of the variant. Local doctors were also asked to send positive tests of Covid-19 to patients with a travel history to the UK or other places abroad where variants were detected.
“We are doing everything in our power to determine how quickly this new strain is spreading, especially as the number of cases in the region has increased dramatically in recent weeks,” Wooten said.
There is also a variant known as 501.V2, which was first identified in South Africa. Like B.1.1.7, it looks more contagious. The strain has reportedly spread to South America and Brazil, although it is summer in the southern hemisphere, a season that has traditionally spread less virus.
Although there is a suspicion that the current vaccines will provide protection against both the UK and the South African strains, there are concerns that antibody products that are often used to treat Covid-19 are less effective against the latter.
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