It was determined that another 27 cases were the South African tribe and 166 the Brazilian variant.
In Sonoma County, eight cases of variants were detected, three each of the West Coast strains B.1.427 and B.1.429. and two of the British tribe, B.1.1.7.
The province has two ways to perform genetic succession tests or genotyping to detect COVID-19 variants. The one, a surveillance program with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, enables the country to process four local virus samples every two weeks. The second is a state-run program that enables the processing of up to 20 positive COVID-19 samples per week at a laboratory in the East Bay.
The criteria for the state genotyping attempt include the test: those who have been re-infected with the virus after 90 days of a previous infection; virus cases among those who have been fully vaccinated; anyone in the hospital who is under 55; anyone who dies and someone who has a history of traveling outside the country or is visitors from outside the country.
Jenny Mercado, an epidemiologist in the province, said the time frame for the results of state genotyping is 21 to 42 days, while the CDC program can last between 30 and 45 days. Officials said such waiting periods do not allow local public health workers to respond effectively to variants and the threats they pose.
D’Arcy Richardson, head of nursing for the province’s pandemic response, said the public health lab was waiting for new genetic sequencing equipment that would enable the country to perform groups of virus samples every few days.
This will significantly improve the country’s ability to detect the presence and trajectory of new COVID-19 variants, Richardson said. Local genetic sequencing should be available by summer, she said.
“It would be a game changer for us if we could manage our affairs and intervene quickly if we saw things in the community worryingly,” Richardson said.
With local genotyping, public health professionals can better determine if certain variants are associated with higher rates of hospitalization, death, or viral transmission. Hospital treatment can then be better tailored for patients with certain variants, she said.
On Friday, the entire country received a boost related to this case. The Biden administration has announced that it will allocate $ 1.7 billion to detect highly contagious variants and increase state and federal genetic sequences. The money, which is part of President Joe Biden’s US rescue plan, is part of the latest effort to address the emerging pandemic threat in the United States, where nearly half of all new COVID-19 cases are now caused by variants word.
Homemade breeds
Dr. Lee Riley, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley, attributed several factors that led to the West Coast variant performing better than other tribes in California. Riley said he does not think the state’s home-based tribes necessarily keep other variants away, as technically “viruses do not compete against each other.”
“They are independently launching new transmission chains among different susceptible groups of people,” Riley said.
The ongoing vaccination of the state, greater compliance with social distance and other pandemic measures, and the fact that so many people in Los Angeles County were infected during the winter outbreak are some of the reasons why the British variant is having trouble finding new groups of people. infected, he said.
“In Michigan, the British variant started circulating before vaccination began, and the state also has no mandatory restrictions, making it easier for the British variant to find many new groups of people to infect,” Riley said. .
The West Coast variant probably originated in Southern California communities with very high transmission frequencies.
“Some of the mutations can adversely affect the virus, while others are beneficial,” he said. “It was just a coincidence that the variant we came into (California) was not as highly communicable as the British variant.”
Nothing urgent
Experts in infectious diseases believe that the fight against the coronavirus will remain fixed on variants and vaccinate as many people as possible before a more deadly strain arrives.
Rutherford, the infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco, said more attention should be paid to places like Baja California, where large urban cities like Tijuana have about 1.5 million people in San Diego.
He said Mexico has many successful vaccination programs and the best vaccination rates for children in the world. But at the moment, he said, Mexico does not have enough COVID-19 vaccines.
“We gave some of our vaccine, and we should probably give more,” Rutherford said. “We need to think more globally, at least more regionally about disease control, otherwise we are going to get reintroductions again.”
During a virtual city hall on Wednesday, the health officials of the province expressed optimism that the local vaccinations could prevent the spread and increase of variants.
Dr. Urmila Shende, Sonoma County vaccine chief, and other infectious disease experts say continued success in beating virus mutations will depend on continued public compliance with all preventative measures, especially mask and social removal, that have helped reduce the local transmission of the virus. in whatever voltage.
“We do not know what the variants are going to do, but hopefully we have beaten the variants,” Shende said. “Hopefully at this stage we have built enough immunity into our community that we will be able to thwart (variants) and that we will not have the same results as other parts of the country and other parts of the country. the world. “
You can contact staff writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or [email protected]. On Twitter @pressreno.