Photographer: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg
Photographer: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg
The Covid-19 variant, which originated in the UK and has fueled concerns about faster distribution, could prevail in the US as quickly as March, government researchers said in a report.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the strain is spreading faster than other versions, and steps must be taken to reduce its transmission, including increased genomic surveillance and compliance with social measures such as testing and wearing a mask. Friday in the report.
“Increased SARS-CoV-2 transmission could threaten endangered healthcare resources, require expanded and stricter implementation of public health strategies, and increase the percentage of population immunity required for pandemic control,” the report said.
The variant, called B.1.1.7, has already been spotted in the US, and according to the CDC, about 76 cases have been confirmed in the country to date. The agency’s projection was based on modeling that showed rapid growth of the variant early this year, which could further undermine the deployment of Covid-19 vaccines, which are characterized by missed deadlines and underutilization of inventory.
The agency currently estimates in the report less than about 0.5% of circulating viruses, although the exact prevalence of B.1.1.7 in the US is not yet known.
United Kingdom Lockdown
British health officials have attributed the recent increase in cases to the ability to disperse the variant, and have introduced strict closure measures. British medical chief Chris Whitty has warned that while he expects things to improve in the spring, the reopening of the economy could complicate the situation.
The report “has the potential to increase the US pandemic orbit in the coming months,” the report said.
Viruses mutate frequently and variants are to be expected, but new variants could potentially take forms that would evade current tests and therapy for Covid-19. The B.1.1.7 variant is one of several found around the world, although there is no variant in the US known as B.1.351 that occurs in South Africa, or another variant called B.1.1 .28 was not found. -January, the CDC said.
The CDC says the B.1.1.7 variant’s high contagion calls for even stricter application of social health measures such as vaccination, removal, masking and hand washing to control spread. Public health measures must be taken “sooner rather than later” to halt their spread, and the health system must be prepared for further increases in cases, the regulator said.
“Increased transmissibility also means that higher income than expected vaccination must be achieved to achieve the same level of disease control to protect the public compared to less transmissible variants,” the report reads.
The CDC also said it was working with partners in academia, industry and at the state and local levels to track the genomes of the virus, which could detect the appearance of new strains.
(Updates with report details and UK distributed from fourth paragraph)