While emerging coronavirus variants remain a threat, health experts said they hope rising vaccination rates and the continued wearing of masks could blunt the potential for a new wave.
However, there are concerns about whether the immunity provided by vaccines will be less effective against some coronavirus variants, including the strain first identified in South Africa, B.1.351, and the homemade California strain, B.1.427 / B. 1,429 th most common
Researchers at UC San Francisco said the California strain is more resistant in laboratory tests to the effects of neutralizing antibodies generated by the immune system in response to COVID-19 vaccines or by a previous coronavirus infection. Compared to other variants, the protection by the antibodies was reduced by a ‘moderate … but significant’ amount, the UCSF researchers said.
When the neutralizing antibodies went up against the homemade stem, its effectiveness was cut in half. For comparison: when these antibodies have the coronavirus strain now dominant in South Africa, their effectiveness has been reduced to one-sixth of their usual levels.
Vaccinators have begun work on booster shots that would be a better fit for the new variants. According to researchers, the vaccines are still pretty good and remain the best way to protect against the virus. Doctors are appealing to people to get the shots as soon as they are eligible.
The vaccination campaigns make an important contribution to the continuing decline in the daily cases of coronavirus, and the trend is gratifying, said dr. Eric McDonald, medical director of the Department of Epidemiology in San Diego County, said this week.
McDonald said that even though the California tribe is’ a little more contagious than the others circulating in the community, the message from home is the same: that you should do everything we can to prevent transmission – so , with masks, social distance, staying at home. ”
“We could not say it more strongly: we think it is a mistake to take our foot off the gas too early, especially if we are now accelerating our vaccination efforts,” said Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House COVID . -19 Response Team.
Vaccinations have been a factor in the decline in new cases of coronavirus in LA County, coupled with the fact that so many residents have developed some immunity through exposure to the virus. Health officials also acknowledge greater compliance with guidelines on wearing masks in public and avoiding social gatherings since the fall-and-winter boom. (Officials also did not detect a surge in business-related events during Super Bowl weekend.)
In the competent nursing homes in LA County – one of the first places where vaccines have been administered – new cases of coronavirus have dropped in recent weeks, the director of public health, Barbara Ferrer, said this week. On February 7, the average number of daily cases of coronavirus associated with residents in competent nursing homes was only five. Four weeks earlier it was over 100.
As of Feb. 14, 74% of residents trained for skilled nursing homes in LA County, and 77% of staff, received their first dose of COVID-19. Of those who had their first dose, 83% of staff and 79% of residents also got their second chance.
“With many more staff and residents being vaccinated, new cases must continue to decline, which means fewer outbreaks, and fortunately fewer deaths,” Ferrer said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s leading expert in infectious diseases, said the rise of the variants made it all the more necessary for people to be vaccinated as soon as possible.
Fauci has expressed concern that a survival of the strongest contest between the UK and California variants could accelerate the spread of the strain best able to avoid the effects of COVID-19 vaccines. The best way to prevent this, Fauci told The Times, is to stop the spread of both variants by being vaccinated, wearing masks and limiting exposure to others.
New daily cases have dropped dramatically in California, but the decline week-on-week has eased in recent days. As of Thursday, California averaged about 5,800 cases per day, down 21% from a week earlier. The previous week-over-week decline was larger, 34%.
Federal officials on Friday expressed concern that the decline in national daily cases of coronavirus was beginning to flatten as one of the UK’s mutant variants increased across the country.
They warned against states easing COVID-19 restrictions, saying the country remains at a tight spot that could lead to a fourth boom before more people are vaccinated.
“We are in the very precarious position of being right before the storm – where anything that could disturb that could give us another boost,” Fauci told reporters during a briefing on Friday. “We do not want to be people who always look at the dark side of things, but you want to be realistic. So we need to take a closer look at what happens to the numbers next week before you start making the understandable [decisions] to relax about certain limitations. ”
The average daily number of cases of coronavirus in California is at its lowest point since the fall and winter boom began to accelerate rapidly. The nationwide number of daily cases has dropped by 87% since the beginning of January, when there were 45,000 new cases per day.
California’s COVID-19 hospitalizations fell 75% from their Jan. 6 high of 21,936; the number dropped from Thursday to 5,590, the lowest since November 23rd.
In addition, the number of people with COVID-19 in California’s intensive care units is down 66%, from a peak of 4,868 on January 10 to 1,640 on Thursday. This is the lowest number since 28 November.
The rate at which coronavirus test results have returned positive over the past seven days reached 2.7% on Friday, a significant decrease from the peak of the winter push, when the positivity rate reached a peak of 14.34% for the period of seven days that Jan ended. 7. California’s positivity rate is now the lowest since mid-October.
Hundreds of COVID-19 deaths are still reported daily, although lower than the peak of about 562 deaths per day at the end of January. On Thursday, 401 additional COVID-19 deaths were reported by the 61 local health agencies in California, according to a Times report; according to an incomplete early survey, another 395 deaths were reported Friday night.
By Friday night, local health agencies in California had reported a total of 51,788 deaths in COVID-19 in the state since the start of the pandemic. On a per capita basis, California has the 30th highest cumulative COVID-19 mortality rate among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.