New mutant variants of the coronavirus could run rampant in the US due to a low level of genetic sequencing on positive COVID tests in the country, health officials say.
More than 350 cases of ‘super-covid’ have now been reported in the US from the three strains first discovered in Brazil, the UK and South Africa.
However, health officials say it’s very likely that the number of new variants circulating across the country is much higher, as viruses naturally mutate constantly as they spread.
Some mutations can harm a virus, causing it to become extinct, but it’s the fact that some can be more deadly, or even more resistant to vaccines, that is worrying.
Scientists are typically able to track different strains through genetic sequencing, which allows them to screen the virus from active cases and study how the specific strain will infect others and respond to vaccines.
The South African variant has a mutation in the spike protein (circled in yellow) that makes it more contagious, allows reinfection and may be immune to vaccines. Two people in South Carolina are the first to have cases in the US, but because they have not traveled recently and have no apparent link, the variant may already be spreading in the US.
On Friday, 165,339 more cases were reported, with 3,503 deaths – a slight decrease from the previous day
While none of the three new COVID variants have been shown to be more deadly, they are more transmissible and experts fear they could potentially reduce the effects of the vaccine.
But detecting new variants this way has been challenging in the US, where only a fraction of positive coronavirus tests are sent for further sequencing, according to The Washington Post.
Health officials say the emerging species have now put medical experts and scientists in ‘a race against time’ to identify new potentially more deadly forms of COVID-19.
“Genomic surveillance is probably the most important thing, besides covid-19 testing itself, that we can do to detect the virus,” RNA biochemist Keith Gagnon of Southern Illinois University told the Post. “Without it, we’ll fly blind.”
While health experts and scientists have supported efforts to conduct widespread sequencing, the shortage appears to be due to a lack of funding, the report said.
The problem mirrors the roadblocks we faced in the early days of the pandemic when the coronavirus spread uncontrollably across the country due to a lack of testing.
The new variants have raised concerns that they could potentially derail vaccination efforts in the country and wipe out months of progress.
“Not every mutation is created equal,” says Mary Petrone, who studies infectious diseases at Yale University. “The virus gets lucky every now and then.”
The number of people hospitalized in the US has continued to decline in every state
Recent data also offered a ray of hope in the country’s fight against the virus, with infections and hospitalizations dropping almost everywhere in the US.
And on Friday, zero states reported a record number of weekly cases for the first time since Nov. 1, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Hospital admissions remain above 101,000, but the number continues to decline in almost every state.
There are currently more than 25.9 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the country and a total of 436,257 deaths.
On Friday, 165,339 more cases were reported, with 3,503 deaths – a slight decrease from the previous day.
While none of the three strains discovered so far have proven to be more deadly, they appear to spread more easily, which could lead to more hospitalizations and deaths.
One of the three main variants that experts are looking at was discovered in the UK late last year and has since been found in dozens of countries.
On Friday, zero states reported a record number of weekly cases for the first time since Nov. 1, according to the COVID Tracking Project
Health officials initially said it didn’t appear to cause worse illness, but newer information suggests this is possible – that’s still unknown at this point.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the variant could become dominant in the US in March.
Other variants first discovered in South Africa and Brazil also appear to be more contagious, experts say.
Data so far suggests that current vaccines should still protect against these variants, although there is some concern that their effectiveness may have been somewhat diminished.
There is some evidence that some antibody treatments may be less effective against certain variants.
There are ways to modify vaccines and treatments to maintain their effectiveness, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert.
