Two new reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that new coronavirus variants could lead to a rapid rise in the number of Covid-19 cases.
In a report published Wednesday, researchers from the CDC and Minnesota health department detailed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the United Kingdom. Previous model data suggested that this variant, which may be more transmissible, could become the predominant variant in the United States in March, and the CDC has urged people to take action to reduce its spread.
The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report described identified cases of B.1.1.7 in specimens collected from eight Minnesota residents, ages 15 to 41, from mid-December to mid-January. Five reported Covid-19-like symptoms and three were asymptomatic.
Three of the people had a history of international travel in the two weeks before falling ill, including two who traveled in West Africa and one who traveled to the Dominican Republic, and three others had traveled to California, including one who tested positive while in California and isolated before returning to Minnesota. No one had a history of traveling to the UK.
Identifying these variants in Minnesota “highlights the importance of mitigating measures such as mask use, physical distance, avoidance of crowds and poorly ventilated indoor areas, isolation of individuals diagnosed with COVID-19, quarantine of close contacts of individuals with COVID-19, and compliance. of the CDC’s travel guide, ”the report said.
On Tuesday, the CDC reported that at least 1,299 cases of strains of coronavirus first spotted in the UK, South Africa and Brazil have been reported in the United States. The vast majority of these cases – 1,277 – concern the B.1.1.7 variant originally discovered in the UK. This variant has been found in 41 states and Washington, DC. About a third are in Florida. Nineteen of those 1,299 are the B.1.351 variant that was first identified in South Africa.
These numbers do not represent the total number of such cases circulating in the United States, but only those found by analysis of positive samples.
In a separate report released by the CDC on Wednesday, researchers from Zambia described how the detection of the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa coincided with a rapid increase in cases in Zambia – and this variant could there may have become the dominant species.
The B.1.351 variant could circulate elsewhere in southern Africa, with many countries reporting a rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in December and January, the report said.
“Diffusion of the B.1.351 variant is a concern for public health because of the potential for increased transmissibility and thus increases in cases, hospitalizations and deaths,” wrote researchers.