Public health experts warn that the new British mutant variant of the new coronavirus in the US will make efforts to contain the spread and vaccinate people as a “formidable challenge”.
It is feared that the new strain, known as SARS-CoV-2 VUI 202012/01, will be 70 percent more transmissible and more easily spread among children.
So far, the “super-COVID” variant has only been detected in four states: California, Colorado, Florida, and New York.
But scientists are telling Bloomberg that there are likely to be “hundreds” of infections across the country and that there needs to be a stronger push to get people vaccinated before more people become infected with the new strain or die for it.
It comes when the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, announced on Monday night a national closure for England that will probably last until mid-February, as the virus continues to ravage the country.
“It’s a career, and this variant has made the whole challenge more formidable,” Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translation Institute in La Jolla, California, told Bloomberg.
“Everything we saw in 2020 in terms of a challenging virus, will be taken to a new level.”
Researchers say there is now a race to vaccinate as many Americans as possible after a new strain of coronavirus is detected in the U.S. Pictured: Nurse Sandra Lindsay receives second dose of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York City, January 2021
This map shows how coronavirus variants have been tracked as they spread around the world. It is feared that the strain that originated in the UK, known as SARS-CoV-2 VUI 202012/01, is 70% more contagious and will spread more easily among children.
Although the deadliest strain was discovered in the U.S. just as vaccine deployment began, distribution has been slow.
According to the CDC, as of Monday morning, 15.4 million doses have been distributed and just over 4.5 million people have received the first dose.
That figure is well-timed by the Trump administration’s plan to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of 2020.
They also occur as cases increase in the United States with more than 20 million confirmed cases (with a rotating average of more than 200,000 daily) and more than 351,000 deaths.
On Sunday, hospitalizations reached a record high of 125,544, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Health officials in the UK say the virus originated sometime in September and circulated in the country undetected until mid-November and has 17 mutations. In the image: 3D representation of the new coronavirus
The new UK variant was first discovered after the country experienced an increase in cases in early December.
It led Prime Minister Boris Johnson to close parts of the nation and other countries to impose travel bans.
It is currently unclear when or how the virus originated, but researchers believe it is circulating undetected from September to mid-November.
Bloomberg reports that the new variant is responsible for at least 62 per cent of all COVID-19 cases in London, an increase from 28 per cent in early November.
And one study found it could be responsible for 90 per cent of all new infections in London and eastern and southern England by mid-January.
The variant has a set of 17 mutations, a very high number, the most significant of which is a change in the tip protein of the virus that it uses to bind to human receptors.
Researchers believe that these mutations facilitate the entry and infection of human cells by the ear protein, which is why it is more transmissible.
Dr. Nick Loman, a professor of microbial genomics at the University of Birmingham, said in a Dec. 15 briefing that there is no data to suggest the virus came from abroad, according to The BMJ.
Scientists suspect there are likely to be “hundreds” of infections across the country.
“If I had to guess, I’d say there are probably already hundreds of people,” Dr. Michael Worobey, head of the University of Arizona’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, told CNN.
“It’s very possible he’s been to several places several times.”
The CDC says it is currently studying how easily the new variant can be transmitted and whether currently authorized vaccines will protect people against them.
The CDC surveillance system is currently being scaled to process 750 samples nationwide a week, and the agency is partnering with labs to genetically sequence or map 1,750 virus samples weekly.
As of Dec. 29, CDC is committed to these labs sequencing 1,750 samples per week and expects to be able to increase that number.
Dr. Gregory Armstrong, director of the Advanced Molecular Detection Office at the CDC National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, said the CDC expects to sequence about 6,000 samples a week.
“It’s important that we control the virus and be able to detect these trends that have implications for public health and clinical medicine,” he told CNN.
However, there is currently no evidence that the firing of Pfizer Inc or the firing of Moderna Inc cannot be protected against the new strain.
“There’s good news here,” Topol told Bloomberg.
“It won’t affect the effectiveness of the vaccine. That’s why there’s this race. If we move this forward and vaccinate everyone, if we do it quickly, we’ll have this virus under control.”