US government chief epidemiologist Anthony Fauci assured authorities taking the new variant of COVID-19 very seriously discovered in New York that experts traced it to a Dominican-majority neighborhood in Upper Manhattan.
“We take the New York variant, 526, very seriously,” Fauci said Monday at a press conference of the White House team responsible for the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, he recalled that it has not yet been proven to be more contagious than the others.
Variant B.1.526 was released in November and has since spread across the Big Apple and is now responsible for about 25% of infections.
According to Fauci, this variant may have originated in the Washington Heights neighborhood, with a majority Hispanic and Dominican, and expanded from there to other parts of the city during the holiday season late last year.
He also assured that there is still a lot of ignorance in the scientific community about this variant and that it is necessary to keep a close eye on it.
They ask for vaccines
Last Tuesday, a network of doctors asked health authorities to open a large vaccination center in Washington Heights.
They also asked for supplies to be supplied to vaccinate 10,000 residents per day, precisely to combat the variant.
Dr. Ramón Tallaj, founder of the SOMOS Community Care network, told the Associated Press (AP) that in addition to the center, it is imperative that the vaccines be sent directly to the doctor’s offices.
“We don’t understand how the vaccine was given to hospitals, emergency systems and pharmacies, and instead community doctors, who trust and know people, who speak the same language, who are around them, didn’t get it. , ‘Said Tallaj.
Likewise, the doctor emphasized that the information available so far is that the vaccine is still effective against the new variant, although the mutation may slightly reduce its effectiveness.
Others
In addition, variant 526 health authorities in New York are monitoring the expansion of variant B.1.1.7 found in the UK; B.1.351, detected in South Africa; the P.1 or Brazilian, and one detected in California, known as B.1.427 / 429.