Two new reports from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that new variants of coronavirus could lead to a rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.
In a report released Wednesday, researchers at the CDC and the Minnesota Department of Health detailed cases of variant B.1.1.7, first identified in the United Kingdom. Previous modeling data suggested that this variant, which could be more transmissible, could become the predominant variant in the United States in March, and the CDC urged people to take steps to reduce the spread.
The CDC’s weekly report on morbidity and mortality described cases B.1.1.7 identified in specimens collected from eight Minnesota residents, aged 15 to 41, from mid-December to mid-January. Five reported Covid-19-like symptoms and three were asymptomatic.
Three of the people had a history of international travel in the two weeks before they became ill, including two who traveled to West Africa and one who traveled to the Dominican Republic, and three others who traveled to California, including one who received a positive test. while in California and isolated before returning to Minnesota. No one has had a history of traveling to the UK.
The identification of these variants in Minnesota “highlights the importance of mitigation measures, such as the use of masks, physical distance, avoid crowds and poorly ventilated indoor spaces, isolation of people with diagnosed COVID-19, quarantine of close contacts of people with COVID-19 and adherence to the guide CDC, ”the report said.
On Tuesday, the CDC reported at least 1,299 cases of coronavirus strains first observed in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil were reported in the United States. The vast majority of these cases – 1,277 – are variant B.1.1.7 initially detected in the UK. This variant has been found in 41 states and Washington, DC. About a third are in Florida. Nineteen of the 1,299 are variant B.1,351 first identified in South Africa.
These numbers do not represent the total number of such cases circulating in the United States, but rather only those found by analyzing positive samples.
In a separate report released by the CDC on Wednesday, researchers in Zambia described how the detection of variant B.1.351 first identified in South Africa coincided with a rapid increase in cases in Zambia – and this variant could have become the strain dominant there.
Variant B.1.351 could circulate elsewhere in South Africa, where many countries reported rapid increases in the number of Covid-19 cases in December and January, the report said.
“The spread of variant B.1.351 is a public health concern due to the potential for increased transmissibility and, therefore, the increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths,” the researchers wrote.