Public health experts warn that the new mutated British variant of the novel coronavirus in the US will work to limit its spread and vaccinating people will be a ‘formidable challenge’.
The new species, known as SARS-CoV-2 VUI 202012/01, is feared to be 70 percent more transmissible and more easily spread among children.
So far, the ‘super-COVID’ variant has only been detected in four states: California, Colorado, Florida and New York.
But scientists tell Bloomberg that there are likely “hundreds” of infections across the country and that there needs to be a stronger impetus to immunize humans before more people get infected with – or die from – the new species.
It comes after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a national lockdown for England on Monday evening that will likely last until mid-February as the virus continues to devastate the country.
“It’s a race, and this variation has made the whole challenge more formidable,” Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, told Bloomberg.
“Whatever we saw in 2020 in terms of a challenging virus, it will be taken to a new level.”
Researchers say a race is now underway to immunize as many Americans as possible after a new strain of the coronavirus was detected in the US. Pictured: Nurse Sandra Lindsay receives second dose of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center New York City, January 2021
This map shows how the coronavirus variants have been tracked as they spread around the world. The strain originating in the UK known as SARS-CoV-2 VUI 202012/01 is feared to be 70% more contagious and easier to spread to children
Although the deadlier species was discovered in the US just as the vaccine rollout began, its distribution has been slow.
According to the CDC, 15.4 million doses have been dispensed as of Monday morning, and just over 4.5 million people have received their first dose.
This figure is well behind the Trump administration’s plan to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of 2020.
It’s also because the number of cases in the US is rising with more than 20 million confirmed cases – with a moving average of more than 200,000 per day – and more than 351,000 deaths.
On Sunday, hospital admissions hit a record high of 125,544, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
British health officials say the virus originated sometime in September and spread undetected across the country until mid-November and has 17 mutations. Pictured: 3D rendering of the new coronavirus
The new British variant was first discovered after the country experienced a rise in the number of cases in early December.
It prompted Prime Minister Boris Johnson to close parts of the country and other countries to impose travel bans.
It is currently unclear when and how the virus originated, but researchers believe it is circulating unnoticed from September to mid-November.
Bloomberg reports that the new variant is in any case responsible for this 62 percent of all COVID-19 cases in London, up from 28 percent in early November.
And one study found it could be responsible for 90 percent of all new infections in London and East and South England by mid-January.
The variant has a set of 17 mutations – a very high number – the most important of which is a change in the spike protein of the virus it uses to bind to human receptors.
Researchers believe that these mutations make it easier for the spike protein to enter and infect human cells, and therefore it is more transmissible.
Dr. Nick Loman, a professor of microbial genomics at the University of Birmingham, said during a December 15 briefing that there is no data to indicate that the virus came from abroad, according to The BMJ.
Scientists suspect there are likely “hundreds” of infections across the country.
“If I had to guess, I would say it’s probably hundreds of people by now,” Dr. Michael Worobey, chief of the ecology and evolutionary biology department at the University of Arizona, told CNN.
“It is quite possible that he arrived at multiple places several times.”
The CDC says it is currently investigating how easily the new variant can be transmitted and whether currently approved vaccines will protect people from them.
Currently, the CDC surveillance system is being expanded to process 750 samples per week nationally, and the agency is working with laboratories to sequence or genetically map 1,750 samples of the virus every week.
As of Dec. 29, CDC has commitments from these labs to sequence 1,750 samples per week and expects to increase this number.
Dr. Gregory Armstrong, director of the Office of Advanced Molecular Detection at the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, said the CDC hopes to sequence about 6,000 samples per week.
“It is important that we monitor the virus and that we can pick up on these trends that affect public health and clinical medicine,” he told CNN.
However, there is currently no evidence that the Pfizer Inc or the Moderna Inc recording is unable to protect against the new species.
“There is good news here,” Topol told Bloomberg.
It does not affect the effectiveness of the vaccine. That is why there is this race. If we stay ahead of this and get everyone vaccinated, if we do it quickly, we’ll have this virus under control. ‘