SALT LAKE CITY – The strain of SARS-CoV-2 that emerged in the UK late last year has reached Utah but hasn’t been a major factor in recent cases, according to new data from the state’s health department.
The Utah Department of Health has added breakdowns of three different coronavirus variants to its COVID-19 data dashboard. SARS-CoV-2 is the coronavirus that leads to COVID-19 in humans.
The data shows that on Thursday there were 33 confirmed cases of B.1.1.7, more commonly referred to as the “UK variant”. That’s only 0.4% of all SARS-CoV-2 cases tested for variants.
Twenty-eight of the variant cases were discovered in Salt Lake County, two were discovered in Utah County, and two more were discovered in Summit County. The other variant found was from a Davis County patient.
Most of the cases were collected in early February.
Utah has not yet received a confirmed case of variants B.1.351 (South Africa) or P.1 (Brazil), two of the other major variants that have emerged since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s not to say they haven’t arrived in Utah or are close by. Earlier this week, health officials in Wyoming reported finding their first case of the South African variant from a positive case in Teton County in January, according to the Casper Star-Tribune.
It was previously announced that the British variant had reached Utah. The state health service announced the first confirmed case on January 15.
The various coronavirus variants have been a concern of public health officials since they were first discovered. For example, researchers found that the British variant spreads faster than the original virus first discovered in 2019. Dr. Angela Dunn, the Utah Department of Health’s state epidemiologist, said it has led to “more serious illnesses” in younger populations.
Recent studies show mixed but mostly encouraging results in the COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
A study published in Nature earlier this week found that the vaccines Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna were 10.3 to 12.4 times less effective at containing the South African variety. The good news is that both vaccines showed strong protection against the British variety.
Another report published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the Pfizer vaccine provided strong protection against the variants in Brazil and the UK. It also found that the vaccine provided protection that was “robust but lower” compared to the South African variety.
That said, experts have pointed to the vaccine’s success in “real world” environments. According to the Associated Press, the Pfizer vaccine was found to be 92% effective against serious illness after two injections and 62% after one injection.
Moderna also began testing a modified version of its vaccine in humans earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company previously announced it would modify its vaccine due to concerns about the South African variant.
Although she warned that COVID-19 has turned out to be “absolutely unpredictable,” Dunn said on Thursday that there is still plenty of evidence to indicate that the vaccines work well against the different variants.
Dunn added that she was pleased with the speed with which vaccination efforts in Utah have been made in recent weeks. Between vaccines and methods of preventing new cases of COVID-19, there are ways to slow or stop the spread of different variants of the coronavirus.
“It’s so important that when the vaccine is available to you, you get it,” she said. “We also know how to protect ourselves against the variants, right? Masks work. Physical distance works. Staying at home when you’re sick, it all works. So let’s keep using those tools until we’ve all been vaccinated.”
“We also have one of the best public health surveillance teams in the country,” Dunn added. “This allows us to track the number of variant cases in our state and understand their spread, and then deliver that information to you in real time. This allows you to make the best, most informed decisions to protect you and your loved one. the ones against COVID. “