Gov. Jared Polis and officials have announced that Denver and a number of other Colorado counties will be moved to the Red Level, on a recently revamped version of the 2019 color-coded COVID-19 dial at Boettcher Mansion in Denver, Colorado. Tuesday. November 17, 2020.
Hyoung Chang | Denver Post | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – Colorado health officials said Wednesday they are investigating a potential second case of a new and potentially more infectious strain of Covid-19.
“There are still many things we don’t know about this option,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Wednesday, advising Coloradans to continue to abide by CDC rules in the new year.
On Tuesday, Colorado health officials confirmed the nation’s first case of coronavirus variant B.1.1.7.
The infected person, a 20-year-old man, has no history of travel and is isolated with mild symptoms, officials said on Tuesday.
The confirmed case, as well as the second patient, are both members of the Colorado National Guard. Both individuals supported the Good Samaritan Society’s assisted living in Simla, about an hour and a half south of Denver.
Officials said Wednesday that a total of six members of the Colorado National Guard are working at the facility.
“Both cases are members of the Colorado National Guard staff who were deployed to support staff at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Simla,” said Dr. Rachel Herlihy, the state’s top epidemiologist with the Department of Public Health and Colorado environment.
She added that the people were tested on December 24 at the state laboratory, a routine measure for members of the National Guard working in the immediate vicinity of patients with Covid-19 or areas prone to the outbreak.
“We are currently investigating two possibilities for how these individuals acquired their infections,” Herlihy said.
“Given the detection of the variant in Colorado, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have allowed us to temporarily discontinue visits to nursing homes for the time being so that the population can be vaccinated quickly,” Polis said.
“Not only is the health risk felt more acutely by elderly Coloradans, but social isolation is a difficult and emotional piece that so many nursing home residents have faced,” he said, adding that the measure will protect the older community of the state.
Dr. Emily Travanty, director of the Laboratory Services Division at the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment, said officials are currently reviewing 24 suspicious samples that may contain mutations. She explained that there is insufficient data to link the 24 additional samples to variant B.1.1.7.
Preliminary analysis of the new variant, first identified in the UK, suggests that it may be the culprit behind the recent British rise in cases.
The CDC said in December that the new strain could already be circulating in the United States without prior notice. The CDC cited ongoing travel between the UK and the US as an explanation for the potential arrival of the new variant.
Read more: Britain will impose tougher restrictions on millions of people as Covid cases increase
The discovery of the strain in the UK has led to the closure of borders in European countries such as Ireland, France, Belgium and Germany, as well as in countries outside the continent.
Last week, the British government confirmed that another infectious variant of the coronavirus identified in South Africa had also appeared in the United Kingdom. The South African strain has not yet been identified in the United States.