Massachusetts officials on Tuesday confirmed the first case of the coronavirus variant that originated in South Africa. Here’s what we know about the variant, officially christened B.1.351, which was found in a woman in her 20s living in Middlesex County.
1. It is very contagious “The B.1.351 variant is widely known,” the state Department of Public Health said Tuesday. “The Massachusetts State Public Health Laboratory works with many health care and academic partners to quickly identify variants by sequencing a subset of positive samples.”
2. It only appeared in October “This variant was first identified in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa, in samples beginning in October 2020, and cases have since been detected outside South Africa, including the United States,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. says on its website.
The variant was also discovered in Zambia at the end of December and appears to be the virus strain in that country at the time.
“There is currently no evidence to suggest that this variant has an effect on the severity of the disease,” the CDC website said.
3. It’s in at least ten US states As of Tuesday, nine states and Washington, DC, have reported a total of 19 cases of the variant, according to the CDC website. The states include Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Illinois, California and Maryland.
4. It is not the only variant in the United States Two others have been confirmed: the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first identified in the UK, as well as the P.1 strain, which first originated in Brazil, says the CDC.
“These variants appear to spread more easily and rapidly than other variants, which could lead to more cases of COVID-19,” the CDC said on its website. “An increase in the number of cases will put more pressure on health care resources, lead to more hospitalizations and possibly deaths.”
The state DPH said on Tuesday that wearing a mask remains an important part of the prevention strategy.
“New information from CDC shows that improving the fit and filtering of masks helps reduce the spread of the virus,” the DPH said. “Mask fitting can be improved by using a mask with a nose wire, and by using a mask fitting or by tying the ruffles and tightening the sides. Mask filtering is improved by using multiple layers. ”
5. Some researchers suggest that the strains are resistant to the vaccines – Balazs Lab, a research group affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard, and MIT, tweeted yesterday about the possible resistance to the vaccines of the B.1.351 variant.
‘The main concern is that three different variants of B.1.351 show a very significant resistance to neutralization by sera of the vaccine,’ the laboratory tweeted, saying: ‘our findings need to be repeated by other groups. This is a preview and has not yet been rated by peer. We may be missing something important that other scientists will point out to us. ‘
Travis Andersen can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe.