Credit: New Jersey National Guard via Flickr
Minnesota now sees outbreaks of the UK version of COVID-19 in four counties, health officials said Friday.
The director of the Minnesota Department of Health, Kris Ehresmann, says that several cases of B.1.1.7. variants have now been found in Scott County, Blue Earth County and an area of St. Louis County. Louis, next to Aurora, in the iron chain.
This adds to Carver County, which has already seen dozens of variants of cases in recent weeks, whose spread of contact tracking has been linked to sports and recreation for young people.
MDH said a 2-day COVID testing event will be held at the Aurora Community Center on Monday and Tuesday, while selecting Mankato – in Blue Earth County – as the location for the 7th permanent community vaccination site.
Scientists say the British version of SARS-CoV-2 can be up to 70% more contagious than the most common strain of the virus, and a study has suggested it is even more deadly.
Star Tribune revealed on Sunday how MDH mapped the outbreak in Carver County, showing how the variant was quickly transmitted through teams and sports schools, revealing that an outbreak of at least 12 infections at an elementary school was linked to a person with a sports team with five infections.
Its rise in Minnesota coincided with the state’s COVID-19 cases, which have returned in recent weeks, falling steadily from the peak at the end of November.
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Hospitalizations have also increased by 316 people hospitalized with COVID-19 since March 18, an increase of more than 100 from the recent low of 210 on March 6.
It has raised concerns among health officials who fear another significant increase in cases before most of Minnesota’s population is vaccinated.
Ehresmann described the state as being in a “race between variants and vaccine.” The cases of the South African and Brazilian variants were also confirmed in Minnesota.
It is believed that all three vaccines currently available in the US, Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, remain effective against the UK version, although early results are mixed for the South African and Brazilian versions.