Highly contagious virus variant identified in 3rd Michigan County

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A new, more contagious form of the coronavirus has been first reported in a third Michigan county.

Health officials say a confirmed case of a highly contagious COVID-19 variant known as B117 was reported in Kent County on Sunday, Feb. 7.

As of Feb. 5, a total of 28 known cases of the variant have been identified in Michigan in the past month, but the cases have only been reported in Washtenaw and Wayne counties.

Read: 28 cases of COVID-19 B117 variant confirmed in Washtenaw, Wayne counties, officials say

The new case reported on the other side of State Sunday appears to confirm the belief of health officials that more cases of the virus variant are likely to occur in Michigan, but they just haven’t been identified yet.

“Essentially this is a race for population coverage; a race that uses vaccination efforts against the transmission of infections, ”says Dr. Adam London, Director of the Kent County Health Department. “While we work to minimize the impact of COVID-19 infections, the B.1.1.7 variant gives the virus a faster speed.”

By nature, a virus – especially an RNA virus like coronavirus – constantly mutates while infecting humans, making copies of itself in the process. Occasionally, several individual mutations of the virus can accumulate or occur simultaneously, creating a new version of the virus with new characteristics called a variant.

The B117 variant, which was first detected in the UK in late 2020, is of particular concern because of its increased transmissibility: health experts say the B117 variant is 50 percent more contagious than the dominant coronavirus strain in the US today.

Experts warn that the B117 variant is likely to become the leading source of COVID infection in the US by the end of March this year.

The first known case of the virus variant in Michigan was identified on Jan. 16 in a woman in Washtenaw County who recently traveled to the UK.

Since then, all variant cases in the state have been found in Washtenaw and Wayne counties only. Washtenaw County officials say all known B117 variant cases within that county are related to the University of Michigan community.

After the variant outbreak began among the UM community, all university athletics was suspended until February 6 and all college students living on or near the Ann Arbor campus were asked to stay home until February 7 to prevent the spread of the virus .

Related: The University of Michigan has identified virus outbreaks in off-campus homes

Three COVID-19 variants have been identified so far in the US, including the B117 variant. Only the B117 variant has been discovered in Michigan since Feb. 7.

Health experts previously said that existing therapies and vaccines are still effective against the B117 variant, but that has yet to be established. Preliminary research shows that although existing vaccines are effective against the B117 variant – albeit to a lesser extent – they are less effective against other variants such as the B1351 variant, which has been found in South Africa.

Lake: Everything we know about virus variants in Michigan, USA

To help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and more contagious variants, people are encouraged to continue to take precautions, including social distancing, wearing masks, using good hygiene, and avoiding crowds and gatherings.

.Source

Share this:

Related