Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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New, highly contagious variants of the coronavirus pose a “threat” to the United States and could reverse the recent drop in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Monday.
The US reported a seven-day average of 119,900 new Covid-19 cases per day last week, nearly 20% less than the previous week, but still “dramatically higher” than the peak seen during the summer, CDC director Dr. . Rochelle Walensky to reporters. during a White House newsletter about Covid-19.
The nation also reported an average of 9,977 Covid-19 hospital admissions per day last week, down at least 17% from the week before, she said.
“The continued proliferation of variants remains a major concern and a threat that could reverse the recent positive trends we are seeing,” said Walensky. “Please keep wearing a mask and stay six feet away from people you don’t live with. Avoid travel, crowds and poorly ventilated areas, and get vaccinated when it’s available to you,” she added.
US health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have raised concerns about the Covid mutations that could potentially circumvent the protections of vaccines currently on the market. Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax have already said their vaccines may be less potent against B.1.351, the highly contagious strain found in South Africa.
On Sunday, South Africa’s health minister Zweli Mkhize said the country would suspend the use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 injection in its vaccination program after data showed it provided minimal protection against B.1.351, the emerging species. He said the government would wait for advice from scientists on how best to proceed after the disappointing results of a trial conducted by the University of Witwatersrand.
Last Sunday, the CDC identified 690 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the UK, Walensky told reporters on Monday. The agency has identified six cases of the South African tribe and three cases of P.1, a variant first identified in travelers from Brazil.
Walensky said public health officials are working to find more cases of these variants, adding that federal and state officials have increased the genome sequence about tenfold in the past three weeks. “We expect to find more cases in the coming weeks,” she added.
The US is always trying to figure out how contagious and deadly the new strains are, said Fauci, the world’s leading infectious disease expert.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last month that early data suggests the country’s tax could be more deadly. Fauci said on Monday that there is currently no data to indicate that the virus is mutating into a “less virulent” strain, meaning it is less harmful than the original virus.
The data from the UK “has yet to be confirmed”, Fauci added. “But so far there is no evidence that it is less virulent. Sometimes when viruses mutate to spread more efficiently, they become less virulent, but we have no data to indicate that this is actually happening.”
Meanwhile, Fauci has insisted that humans get vaccinated as soon as possible, saying last week that the virus cannot mutate if it cannot infect and replicate hosts.