Santa Clara Province health officials said in a statement on Thursday that the number of cases involving more contagious COVID-19 variants was rising in the province, indicating a “worrying trend.”
The country has appealed to residents to be vigilant about wearing face masks and avoid travel and quarantine if they have to travel.
“Genomic sequencing allows us to confirm what we have already adopted based on national trends, which is the presence and unfortunate increase of variants in our community,” said Dr. Sara Cody, the country’s health officer, wrote in an email. ‘We are already seeing increases in other parts of the country, probably driven by variants. Combined with the data we see locally, these are important warning signs that we need to limit the spread. We can still prevent a boom from happening here if we keep our tried and tested measures for a little longer while increasing our vaccination rate. ‘
In a live press conference, Cody urged residents not to act as if the pandemic is over.
“We need people to last a little longer,” she said. “Keep wearing your mask. Postpone your trip. Do not eat indoors. Do not go to indoor bars. Do not host an indoor gathering at your home. Do not do this if permitted by state rules. This is not safe. ‘
Every variety of concern has been detected in the country and Santa Clara was last week the first province in the Bay to dominate the variant in Brazil.
The variant known as P.1 is highly contagious and research has shown that it can re-infect people who have already had other strains of the virus.
The individual who tested positive for the P.1 variant was identified, according to the health department, in mid-March after returning from outside state travel.
In addition, the first two cases of the varieties of concern in New York (one of B.1.525 and B.1.526) have now been confirmed in Santa Clara, provincial officials said.
On 27 March, there were 92 confirmed cases of B.1.1.7 (first detected in the UK), three confirmed cases of B.1.351 (first detected in South Africa), one case of P.1 ( first detected in Japan / Brazil) and more than 1000 confirmed cases of B.1.427 and B.1.429 (first detected in California).
Viruses are constantly mutating, and in recent months numerous variants of COVID-19 have emerged, including variants from the United Kingdom and South Africa. This is worrying because researchers believe they can spread more easily and are likely to become the main source of disease.
Early research suggests that the vaccines provide protection against the new variants, although they may be slightly less effective and require further investigation.