Category: coronavirus strains

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California is now the 4th state to report cases of the more infectious coronavirus variant found in South Africa

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Alameda County workers line up to receive coronavirus vaccines outside St. Rose Hospital in Hayward, California on January 8, 2021.

Jessica Christian/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images

  • California is the latest state to report cases of the more transmissible coronavirus variant found in South Africa
  • The variant, first identified in in October, has been found in at least four US states.
  • The variant seems to partially evade immunity gained in response to vaccines or infection with the original virus.
  • Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

Once South African scientists detected a more infectious coronavirus variant in early October, scientists knew it was only a matter of time before the strain reached the US.

At the end of January, the US reported its first two cases of the new variant, called B.1.351, in South Carolina. 

California became the latest state to report its own B.1.351 cases on Wednesday. At a press conference, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Stanford University had detected two cases in the San Francisco Bay Area: one in Alameda County and another Santa Clara County. He did not provide further details.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also identified six cases of B.1.351 in Maryland and one in Virginia.

The variant isn’t spreading as widely as B.1.1.7, another more infectious strain first identified in the UK in September. The CDC has reported more than 930 cases of B.1.1.7 across 34 states so far.

Coronavirus vaccines still appear to be highly effective against B.1.1.7, but scientists are more concerned about B.1.351 because preliminary research found it can partially evade the protection offered by current vaccines.

Moderna, for instance, exposed blood samples from people who’d received the company’s vaccine to B.1.351. They found those samples developed six times fewer virus-neutralizing antibodies than samples exposed to other variants. The company is now exploring the possibility of a booster shot that’s tailor-made to neutralize B.1.351.

Scientists also worry that people who already had COVID-19 could get reinfected with this more transmissible strain.

A race to keep B.1.351 from spreading

COVID-19, South Africa
Health worker Vuyiseka Mathambo takes a nasal swab from a patient to test for COVID-19 at a Masiphumelele community center in Cape Town, South Africa on July 23, 2020.

Nardus Engelbrecht/AP Photos

The US genetically sequences just 0.01% of its coronavirus cases – around three out of every 1,000 cases. That puts the country 33rd in the world for genetic sequencing, according to the latest data from GISAID, a global database that collects coronavirus genomes.

This sequencing deficit means new variants can easily spread undetected in the population. In all likelihood, B.1.351 entered the US long before South Carolina reported its first cases. Neither of those people had recently traveled, nor was there any personal connection between them.

Even people who previously got COVID-19 could be susceptible, evidence suggests. A recent study of Novavax’s vaccine candidate found that B.1.351 cases were just as common among people who’d previously recovered from infections with other strains as those who had not. 

“If it becomes dominant, the experience of our colleagues in South Africa indicates that even if you’ve been infected with the original virus, that there is a very high rate of re-infection,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN last week.

That possibility, combined with B.1.351’s increased transmissibility, could lead to another rise in coronavirus cases, scientists warn. The variant doesn’t appear to be deadlier than the original strain, though.

“When you have more contagious variants circulating and people now feeling free to do things that they weren’t able to do for a while, we do risk having another surge happen in the near future,” Anne Rimoin, an epidemiology professor at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, recently told Insider. “So we need to be watching it carefully.”

For now, scientists hope that vaccinations and other public-health measures will be enough to keep B.1.351 from becoming the dominant strain in the US. More genetic sequencing, they add, could prevent future variants from spreading.

“We’ve got to find ways to get in front of this as opposed to constantly chasing behind it without good surveillance,” Rimoin said. Otherwise, she added, “we’re destined to make the same mistakes.”

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First known US case of highly transmissible mutated coronavirus strain from Brazil reported in Minnesota

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A North Dakota resident seals a self-administered COVID-19 saliva test sample at a testing site inside the former Thomas Edison Elementary School, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues in Moorhead, Minnesota, U.S., October 25, 2020.

Bing Guan/Reuters

  • The first known US case of a coronavirus variant from Brazil was reported in Minnesota on Monday.
  • The new strain P.1, is another mutation of SARS-CoV-2 to be detected in the US, alongside a strain originating from the UK. 
  • The patient had recent travel history to Brazil and developed symptoms during the first week of January.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The first known case of a new, highly contagious coronavirus variant from Brazil was reported in Minnesota on Monday, according to state public health officials.

The mutated coronavirus strain from Brazil is another known variant to be detected in the US, alongside another strain that was first identified in the UK, known as B.1.1.7.

Another variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the coronavirus that causes the respiratory disease COVID-19, has also been reported originating from South Africa, B1.351, but infections from the strain have not been reported in the US as of Monday.

“The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) today announced that its Public Health Laboratory has found the variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus known as the Brazil P.1 variant in a specimen from a Minnesota resident with recent travel history to Brazil,” state health officials said in a statement Monday.

The person is a resident of the Twin Cities metro area, and started to develop symptoms during the first week of January, health officials said. A test sample from the patient was collected on January 9.

The infection from the Brazilian strain P.1 was detected through the health department’s “variant surveillance program,” in which the program collects 50 random samples from clinical laboratories and testing partners and tests the samples through whole-genome sequencing, according to the statement.

Read more: When the coronavirus runs rampant, mutations and new strains are more likely. That may be what happened in the UK.

“We’re thankful that our testing program helped us find this case, and we thank all Minnesotans who seek out testing when they feel sick or otherwise have reason to get a test,” Minnesota Commissioner of Health Jan Malcolm said in a statement.

Scientists have been particularly concerned about the P.1 coronavirus strain after the rapid surge of infections in the Brazilian city of Manaus, The Washington Post reported.

Mutations of a virus can occur in areas where the original strain runs rampant, which may have been the case in the UK and Brazil. A study published in the research journal Science found that more than three-quarters of the population in Manaus had already been infected by the coronavirus, which should have put residents close to herd immunity from the virus.

“We know that even as we work hard to defeat COVID-19, the virus continues to evolve as all viruses do,” Malcolm said. “That’s yet another reason why we want to limit COVID-19 transmission – the fewer people who get COVID-19, the fewer opportunities the virus has to evolve.”

“The good news is that we can slow the spread of this variant and all COVID-19 variants by using the tried-and-true prevention methods of wearing masks, keeping social distance, staying home when sick, and getting tested when appropriate,” the Minnesota health commissioner continued.

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