According to government officials and federal public health, the first case of a coronavirus variant that became dominant in parts of Brazil has been identified in California.
The California Department of Public Health confirmed the case Wednesday, along with a fourth case of a South African variant identified in a Santa Clara County resident.
The P.1 variant has mutations similar to the B.1.351 variant from South Africa, and both are somewhat resistant to antibodies generated by vaccines or natural infections. The P.1 variant in particular is associated with cases of re-infection in Brazil, and a second wave is likely to be fueled there.
Both variants are also more contagious than earlier versions of the virus.
In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has now upgraded two rapidly spreading variants that first emerged in California to the “variants of concern” category.
All four California cases of the B.1.351 variant were found in the Bay Area: two in Alameda County and two in Santa Clara County. The three earlier cases were found in people who had recently traveled abroad. But the fourth case was in an individual who did not travel, indicating that the variant is spreading in the community, provincial health officials said.
“Taking into account the national trends, we work under the assumption that these variants have spread to a certain level in our communities,” said dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County health officer, said in a statement. “This latest case confirms that we do have a community transfer, and reminds us not to wait in the midst of this pandemic.”
Nationwide, 27 cases of the P.1 variant were reported in 12 states, and 142 cases of the B.1.351 variant in 25 states. According to GISAID, an international database of genomic sequences used to identify and detect coronavirus mutations, the two variants make up less than 1% of all cases in the United States.
Meanwhile, the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant first found in the UK is spreading rapidly in the United States. This was about 10% of all genomic sequences reported by US laboratories to the database over the past four weeks, compared to just 4% a month ago.
According to the CDC, more than 4,600 cases of B.1.1.7 have been reported in all 50 states. CDC officials are expected to become dominant in the United States by the end of this month or early April.
Santa Clara County officials said Wednesday they have identified 15 cases of B.1.1.7. Cases have also been reported in Alameda and Contra Costa in the Bay Area, although they are mostly distributed in Southern California.
The two additional variants, B.1.427 and B.1.429, which were added to the CDC’s list of varieties this week, are also spreading rapidly, mostly in California where they were first detected. According to the GISAID database, there are more than half of the cases followed up in many provinces and about 12% to 20% of the cases nationwide.
Early studies, including work done from UCSF, suggest that they are about 20% more contagious than the original virus and are also resistant to some antibodies.
Scientists believe that available vaccines continue to provide strong protection against the two California variants and the British variant. They may lose some effectiveness compared to the variants from Brazil and South Africa, but vaccine manufacturers are already developing boosters.
Erin Allday is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected]