Massachusetts reported more cases of the new P.1 COVID-19 variant – associated with increased transmissibility and possible reinfection – than elsewhere in the US, and local researchers said the increase is worrying.
Most of these cases, they added, are linked to a bunch on Cape Cod.
Of the 58 known positive cases of the P.1 variant in Mass., According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 50 have been identified in Barnstable County.
Data from the Broad Institute from MIT and Harvard revealed that in less than a month since the state reported his first known case of the P.1 variant, which was introduced for the first time in travelers of Brazil, it has spread faster than any other COVID-19 variant in the Commonwealth.
The CDC also reports that Mass. Now 712 cases of the very contagious B.1.1.7 show. variant first detected in the United Kingdom, which according to officials has become the largest tribe in much of the country.
Cape cod officials said last week that they are facing a third boom and that the community needs emergency vaccination sites after 20 of the first P.1 cases have surfaced. Nearly half of Barnstable County’s 15 towns are now also considered by the state to be high risk for the virus.
The Broad Institute’s research indicates that 43 of the cases from the group at the Cape were linked to an introduction from Brazil, and this P.1 was possibly introduced through Massachusetts in Connecticut, although researchers have not yet had to identify an epidemiological link.
William Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, tells The Boston Globe On Saturday, many of the different cases were discovered at the Cape when only a few people were vaccinated.
The latest weekly coronavirus report for Mass. Showed that more Barnstable County residents got their first shots than any other region in the state, but Hanage said that was far from enough.
“To completely rule out this virus, we need to vaccinate a lot more people than we have already done,” he told the Globe. ‘The high vaccination rates [right now] itself is not sufficient to be protective, and if we allow more transfer, we will get more business. ”
Although cases did not continue to increase throughout the state, researchers said that this was probably the variant “is already or will soon be circulating in communities and ongoing oversight will be critical to understanding the trajectory and its impact.
The CDC found that P.1 tends to spread faster and easier than the original COVID-19 strain, although scientists have yet to know if it is more deadly or how likely it is to re-infect those who have already had the coronavirus and recovered.
According to Brazil, almost 2,000 deaths were reported on Saturday in connection with the P.1 variant. data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The country also reported its highest death toll so far in one day on Wednesday, with 3,869 people dying from the virus. Officials have warned that the a boom in Brazil could have global consequences, and many South American countries are already seeing their own case count.
P.1 was first detected in the US in January 2021, and scientists are not yet sure how widely the variant has spread, or how it will be affected by existing vaccines. However, a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine appears to remain highly effective.
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