Two new reports from the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention warn that new coronavirus variants could lead to a rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.
In one report released Wednesday, researchers from the CDC and Minnesota’s Department of Health outlined cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the United Kingdom. Earlier modeling data suggested that this variant, which may be more transmissible, could become the predominant variant in the United States in March, and the CDC urged people to take action to reduce the spread.
The CDC’s weekly report on morbidity and mortality identified B.1.1.7 cases in samples collected from eight Minnesota residents, between the ages of 15 and 41, from mid-December to mid-January. Five reported Covid-19-like symptoms and three were asymptomatic.
Three of the people had a history of international travel in the two weeks before they became ill, including two who traveled to West Africa and one who traveled to the Dominican Republic, and three others who traveled to California, including one who received a positive test. while in California and was isolated before returning to Minnesota. No one had a history of traveling to the UK.
The identification of these variants in Minnesota “emphasizes the importance of mitigation measures such as mask use, physical distance, avoidance of crowds and poorly ventilated indoor spaces, isolation of persons diagnosed with COVID-19, quarantine of close contact with persons with COVID-19 compliance. CDC travel guide, ”reads the report.
The CDC reported on Tuesday that at least 1,299 cases of coronavirus strains first detected in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil have been reported in the United States. The vast majority of these cases – 1,277 – are the B.1.1.7 variant originally detected in the United Kingdom. This variant has been found in 41 states and Washington, DC. About a third are in Florida. Nineteen of the 1,299 are the B.1.351 variant that was first identified in South Africa.
These numbers do not represent the total number of such cases distributed in the United States, but only those found by analyzing positive samples.
In a separate report released by the CDC on Wednesday, researchers from Zambia described how the detection of the B.1.351 variant, which was first identified in South Africa, coincided with a rapid increase in cases in Zambia. – and this variant would possibly have become the dominant tribe there.
The B.1.351 variant may spread elsewhere in southern Africa, where many countries saw a rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in December and January, the report said.
“Distribution of the B.1.351 variant is of public health concern due to the possibility of increased transmissibility and thus increased cases, hospitalizations and deaths,” researchers wrote.