Gov. Jared Polis and officials announced that Denver and a number of other Colorado counties will be relocated to Level Red on a recently redesigned version of the state’s color-coded COVID-19 dial ‘u2019 at Boettcher Mansion in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday November 17th. , 2020.
Hyoung Chang | Denver Post | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – Health officials in Colorado said Wednesday they are investigating a possible second case of a new and potentially more contagious strain of Covid-19.
“There’s still a lot we don’t know about this variant,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis said Wednesday, advising Coloradans to adhere to CDC guidelines in the new year.
On Tuesday, Colorado health officials confirmed the nation’s first case of the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant.
The infected person, a man in his 20s, has no travel history and is in isolation with mild symptoms, officials said Tuesday.
Both the confirmed case and the second patient are both members of the Colorado National Guard. Both individuals supported the Good Samaritan Society residential care center in Simla, about an hour and a half south of Denver.
Officials said on Wednesday that a total of six Colorado National Guard members worked at the facility.
“In both cases, the Colorado National Guard personnel were deployed to support the personnel at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Simla,” said state chief epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
She added that the individuals were tested in the state lab on Dec. 24, a routine measure for National Guard members working near Covid-19 patients or areas prone to outbreaks.
“We are currently investigating two options for how these individuals may have contracted their infections,” Herlihy said.
“Given the detection of the variant in Colorado, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have allowed us to temporarily suspend visits to nursing homes so that that population can be vaccinated quickly,” Polis said.
“Not only is the health risk more acutely felt by older Coloradans, but social isolation is a difficult and emotional part that so many nursing home residents have faced,” he said, adding that the measure will protect the state’s older community.
Dr. Emily Travanty, director of the Laboratory Services Division at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said officials are currently analyzing 24 suspicious samples that may contain mutations. She explained that there was not enough data to link the additional 24 samples to the B.1.1.7 variant.
During a Wednesday interview with reporters, Dr. Henry Walke of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the new variety “seems to spread more easily and more quickly than other strains.” Walke also said it doesn’t appear to result in worse infections or an increased risk of death.
Walke said the person in Colorado infected with the new strain of the virus had no travel history, suggesting that this variant has been passed from person to person in the United States.
He added that given the wide distribution of the variant in the UK, its arrival in the US “was expected”.
Preliminary analysis of the new variant, first identified in the UK, suggests it may be the culprit behind the recent spike in UK cases.
The CDC said in December that the new species could already be circulating in the US without notice. The CDC cited ongoing travel between the UK and the US as an explanation for the possible arrival of the new variant.
Read more: UK to impose tougher restrictions on millions of people as Covid cases increase
The tribe’s discovery in Britain led to border closures in European countries such as Ireland, France, Belgium and Germany, as well as countries outside the continent.
Last week, the UK government confirmed that another contagious variant of the coronavirus identified in South Africa had also surfaced in the UK. The species from South Africa has not yet been identified in the United States.