To date, health experts have identified at least three variants of the coronavirus, identified by the countries from which they appeared to originate: the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that health experts in South Africa have seen the existing variant have a reinfection rate as high as the previous infection. it didn’t seem to protect people.
While current vaccines do not offer the same level of protection against variants, they can protect against serious illness, including hospitalization and death, Fauci said. They could also prevent variants from becoming more dominant.
“Viruses can’t mutate if they don’t replicate. And if you stop their replication by vaccinating widely and not giving the field an open playing field to continue responding to the pressures you put on it, you won’t get mutations,” Fauci said in a session virtual briefing with the White House Covid-19 response team.
“You need to get vaccinated when it’s available as quickly and as quickly as possible across the country.”
There are more transmissible variants spread across the United States
The variant identified in the United Kingdom has already made its way to several states in the United States.
On Monday, the Iowa Department of Health said three cases were identified. Officials have contacted the infected to monitor their health and notify the people with whom they have been in close contact.
“State and local public health officials are conducting additional epidemiological investigations to gather more details about illness, travel history and possible exposures,” IDPH spokeswoman Sarah Ekstrand told CNN.
Georgia officials have identified 19 cases in the Atlanta subway area, the Department of Health said Monday. The cases range from 15 to 61 years old.
The first known South Carolina case of the variant was identified in an adult from the Lowcountry region who traveled internationally, the agency reported Saturday.
And while Covid-19 cases have been steadily declining in Colorado, the state has identified 13 cases of the UK strain, said Colorado epidemiologist Dra. Rachel Herlihy, to reporters during a Zoom press conference.
The state is “working hard” to make the distribution of a vaccine against the virus fair and transparent, said Brigadier General Scott Sherman of the Colorado National Guard.
32 million doses of vaccine administered in the US
Vaccine distribution and administration has been slow, but officials hope to speed up the pace of getting doses to states and people’s arms to put their arms around the pandemic and growing variants.
To date, more than 32 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States, with 26 million people receiving at least one dose and about 6 million completely vaccinated, according to data released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. Diseases and Prevention.
Both Michigan and North Carolina have administered more than a million doses of vaccine, officials said.
“Reaching this milestone is good news for our families, front-line workers and small business owners, but there is more work to be done,” said Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “My administration works closely with the federal government to help us get the supply we need to achieve our goal and get back to the normalcy we all want. I ask for patience from Michiganders while our front-line workers work 24 hours a day. hours of the day to administer vaccines “.
“We’ve long planned for most Minnesota people to get vaccinated in places where they are used to receiving their medical care,” Walz said in a press release. “But not everyone has a doctor or a pharmacy that’s familiar to them. That’s why we’ve created a reliable network of different ways in which Minnesota people can access the vaccine.”
People previously infected with Covid-19 may only need one dose of vaccine, according to the study
According to a study released Monday, those who have already been infected with coronavirus and hope to avoid reinfection may only need one dose of vaccine instead of administering it to most.
The study authors wrote that people who were previously infected with the virus had antibody levels equal to or higher than people who had received both doses but had never been infected, as well as more side effects. generalized after the first dose. has not been peer reviewed.
The authors argue that “changing the policy to give these people a single dose of vaccine would not negatively affect their antibody titers, save them from unnecessary pain, and release many doses of vaccine urgently needed.”
“Ongoing follow-up studies will show whether these early differences in immune responses persist over time,” they wrote.
The CDC says people should be vaccinated even if they have Covid-19, as it is not yet clear how long antibody protection will last.
CNN’s Andrea Diaz, Deidre McPhillips, Christina Maxouris, Keith Allen, Gisela Crespo, Laurie Ure, Rebekah Riess, Amanda Sealy and Michael Nedelman contributed to this report