The highly contagious variant of the coronavirus first discovered in the United Kingdom before being found in several U.S. states has reached New Jersey, NJ Advance Media has learned.
Government Phil Murphy and the state health official will announce during the COVID-19 briefing in Trenton on Friday that two cases have been identified in Garden State.
Scientists have said the mutation is up to 70% more contagious. But there is still no evidence that it is more lethal or resistant to vaccines. New Jersey joins at least 20 states where the tribe has been confirmed.
“We report that two confirmed cases of COVID-19 variant have been identified with respect to the B.1.1.7 or UK variant in New Jersey,” Health Department Commissioner Judy Persichilli will announce, according to her prepared remarks.
The first case identified is of a man in Ocean County in his 60s and the other is a child who traveled to northern New Jersey, Health Minister Judy Persichilli will reveal.
“(The man) had no travel history or clear exposure to others who were ill,” Persichilli would say. The child, who was tested in New York City on January 11, is asymptomatic. The local health department is working to investigate this matter further. ”
The man developed symptoms in late December and was tested on January 6 with a PCR test. He was never admitted to the hospital and has since recovered.
The governor had already said in late December that the new tribe was probably already in the state.
“We assume this tension is coming down on us,” Murphy said during a December 28 briefing.
It was discovered in early January in neighboring New York.
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Viruses often get small changes of a letter or two in their genetic alphabet, just by normal evolution. A slightly adapted tribe may become the most common in a country or region, simply because it is the tribe that first took up position there, or because ‘super-distributor’ events helped entrench it.
A bigger concern is when a virus mutates by altering the proteins on its surface so that it escapes from drugs or immune system.
But health officials in New Jersey have said they do not think the variant will limit the effectiveness of the vaccines for the virus.
“The chances are high that the vaccine will continue to work well,” said Ed Lifshitz, medical director of the Department of Communicable Diseases’ Health Service, late last month.
“The reason for this is because a virus has to mutate enough that the antibodies of the vaccine are unlikely to stop,” he said. ‘It will probably also mutate enough so that it can not grip the cell well. the first place. ”
He added: ‘I know that the manufacturers of cell vaccines are looking at this and we definitely always want to pay attention because we never say when it comes to viruses, but I would expect the vaccine to be just as effective or almost. as effective against the new variant as the current variants. ”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Matt Arco can be reached at [email protected].