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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Duval County Health Department confirmed on Friday that a case of the COVID variant first identified in the UK has been found in Jacksonville. But health experts warn that the number could be much higher.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated Thursday evening, 347 cases of this variant B.1.1.7 were found in Florida. More than a third of the 981 cases identified in the United States so far.
Last week, 825,000 cases of COVID-19 were identified in the United States, according to the CDC, while only an average of 6,000 samples each week are given the genomic sequencing needed to detect the variant.
In addition, although standard COVID-19 testing returns in a few hours or a couple of days, additional testing to identify the variant takes much longer, according to UF Health director of infectious diseases Chad Neilsen.
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“Here at our hospital, if I decided to send it to a referral center, if I sent it today, I probably wouldn’t have results for a couple of weeks,” Neilsen said.
This is because only specially equipped laboratories can test variants.
“The vast majority of these (347 cases) are actually sequenced outside of Florida, in a California research center,” Neilsen said. “We just don’t have the robust capacity in Florida or the United States to do it on a large scale.”
Neilsen believes we’ve seen most cases in Florida because a lot of people travel there.
“You also have several laws and mandates in each county and, I think, that inhibits us as a state to control COVID,” Neilsen said.
If there is good news, both the vaccines being given to the elderly and health workers are believed to be effective against the variant, according to a health department spokeswoman.
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A study published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that a variant first identified in the Los Angeles area last year accounted for about 44% of Southern California cases by the end of January, nearly twice as many. ‘a month before. Cedars-Sinai researcher Jasmine Plummer, co-author of the study, said more research is needed to determine whether the variant spreads more easily than other variants of COVID-19 or causes more disease.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, wrote in an attached editorial that new variants will likely continue to appear until the spread of the virus is reduced.
This announcement of a variant in Jacksonville comes a day after a student at the University of Central Florida was diagnosed with the UK coronavirus variant, which is believed to be more easily transmitted. The unidentified student tested positive this week, Michael Deichen, associate vice president of UCF Student Health Services, said Thursday in a statement on the university’s website.
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The Orlando-based university is one of the largest in the country with more than 66,000 students. University officials said the student was isolated and contact tracking measures were taken.
“The tools we use to combat this variant are no different from the steps we’ve taken for almost a year,” Deichen said. “COVID-19 and these new variants cannot be easily transmitted when the face coatings are worn properly, the hands are regularly maintained and disinfected.”
The Florida Department of Health announced the first state case of the British variant late last year, and now the state leads the nation in variant cases, with nearly 350 confirmed diagnoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disease Prevention.
Tens of thousands of college students across the nation have tested positive for the virus, and some campuses have seen spikes in cases with students returning to campus.
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