Credit: Bring Me The News
More warnings from the country’s leading infectious disease experts, as the B.1.1.7 strain of coronavirus is spreading rapidly across parts of the United States.
Although tens of thousands of Minnesota people are vaccinated daily, variant B.1.1.7 is believed to be the cause of at least 50% of new cases in Minnesota. The state health department has reported more than 2,000 new cases for three consecutive days for the first time in more than two months and the trajectory appears to be accelerating.
He appears on NBC Meet the press On Sunday morning, Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, warned that a fourth rise in America is just beginning, and that the states of the Upper Midwest and North -this are the first in line.
“Right now, we’re really in a Category 5 hurricane state compared to the rest of the world,” Osterholm said. “As for the US, we’re just at the beginning of this wave, we haven’t even started to see it.”
The increase is clearly seen in Michigan, where more than 8,400 new cases were reported on Saturday. Osterholm called Michigan’s situation an “alarm call,” which responded to his words Thursday during an appearance on WCCO Radio in which he stated, “Those who don’t want to believe it, that’s your problem.”
He tripled Monday morning when he told WCCO Radio that Minnesota wasn’t far behind Michigan: “I would project right now where things are, in 2-3 weeks we could see much higher figures than our 2,400 cases in the day here in Minnesota “.
Osterholm suggests now that it may no longer be safe for children to continue learning in class because variant B.1.1.7 is more effective in infecting children than the original SARS-CoV-2 strain.
“Unlike previous strains of the virus, we didn’t see children under 8th grade get infected often or they weren’t very sick. They weren’t transmitted to the rest of the community. That’s why I was one of those people very strongly supporting the reopening of classroom learning, ”he said.
“These kids are now really big challenges in terms of how they convey. The fact that they can sit here and talk about 749 schools in Minnesota in the last two weeks that have activity B.1.1.7, the message is that we need to receive through this increase, and that means we will have to rethink what we do now and how we do it. “
According to the Minnesota Department of Health, there are actually 752 schools reporting COVID-19 cases, although it is not confirmed that all schools treat B.1.1.7.
“At the moment, 752 schools have confirmed cases of COVID-19, but we have not confirmed variant B.1.1.7 in each of these schools,” a health department spokesman told BMTN, while estimating that ” more than 50% of COVID-19 cases in Minnesota right now are B.1.1.7. ”
Gov. Tim Walz was aware of Osterholm’s warning about a possible variant-driven rise since February. A February 17 BMTN article reported on this Osterholm prediction:
Osterholm expects “very dark days” in late March, even predicting that schools that currently bring children back for in-person instruction will have difficulty staying in person when the climb arrives.
“I have a lot of respect for Dr. Osterholm and he’s been a huge component that helps us understand,” Walz began when asked about Osterholm’s predictions. “That’s not the CDC’s position. It’s not the models we’re using, IMHE, Mayo … we’re not necessarily seeing it. It’s not wrong for variants to pose a potential threat.”
Some schools are already taking action
About 90% of Minnesota schools received face-to-face instruction again in early March, although some have experienced outbreaks that have forced them to return to hybrid or distance education.
Last week, Alexandria Public Schools notified parents that students in 7th through 12th grade at Discovery Middle School and Alexandria High School were switching to a hybrid model from April 7 at the end of the school year due to ‘an increase in cases. Austin Public Schools temporarily moved to a distance learning model on March 11 due to a COVID outbreak from a bus driver and has maintained grades 7-12 in a hybrid learning mode. for the rest of the school year.
Appearance of Osterholm a Meet the press is the latest example of a leading health official expressing concern about variant B.1.1.7. Last week, CDC director Rochelle Wolensky expressed a sense of “imminent doom” about a fourth increase, while Minnesota state epidemiologist Dr. Ruth Lynfield spoke in a less alarming tone. .
“We are experiencing worrying growth in cases and hospitalizations,” Lynfield Thurday said. “We need to work together in our communities to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2, including the spread of these variants. These variants are more contagious and the one that is very common (B.1.1.7) has been associated with more serious illnesses “.
Minnesota did not provide any updates to COVID-19 on Easter Sunday, so Monday’s report will include two days of data.