CDC headquarters in Atlanta
Elijah Nouvelage | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that a new strain of Covid-19 now circulating in the United States could stress hospitals that are already overwhelmed by coronavirus patients.
Colorado health officials announced Tuesday that they have detected the first known case in the US of the new and most infectious virus strain originally discovered in the United Kingdom. A second new separate strain first identified in South Africa could already be circulating in the United States, CDC officials said.
“Because variants spread faster, they could lead to more cases and put even more pressure on our already heavily loaded health care systems,” said Dr. Henry Walke, the agency’s Covid incident manager. -a telephone conference with reporters.
Walke said the available data indicates that the new variant is spreading “easier and faster than other strains,” but does not appear to cause more severe disease or an increased risk of death.
He noted that the Colorado individual who was infected with the new strain of the virus did not have a history of travel, which “suggests that this variant was transmitted from one person to another in the United States.” He added that, given how widespread the variant was in the UK, “it was expected to arrive in the US”.
“Viruses are constantly changing by mutation and we expect to see new variants appear over time,” he said. “Many mutations lead to variants that do not change the way the virus infects people. Sometimes, however, variants appear that can spread more easily, like these.”
He added that “experts believe that our current vaccines will be effective against” both new strains. Scientists are still studying how the new strains respond to Covid-19 treatments, such as monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma.
Dr. Greg Armstrong, director of the CDC’s Office of Advanced Molecular Detection, said the claim that vaccines will be effective against new variants is based on “experience with similar previous mutations.” He added that immunity induced by previous infection from a different strain is also probably effective against these new strains.
National and state laboratories across the country are conducting tests to determine if other variants are present in the US and how widespread the variant is found in the UK. He said the CDC is stepping up its national surveillance program to receive 750 samples a week for sequencing.
He added that the agency is contracting with academic centers across the country to sequence samples and look for new options locally. He said the centers are located in Boston, New Haven, Connecticut, Athens, Georgia, Nashville, Tennessee, Madison, Wisconsin and the Scripps Institution in San Diego.
“There are a lot of labs that have this capacity in the US,” he said of testing the new variant. “Many of them are looking for this option right now.”