The first case of the South African virus variant reportedly was found in a New York resident.
Cuomo stresses value of safety measures
NEW YORK — The first case of the South African coronavirus variant has been discovered in a New York state resident, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday.
The South African variant case involved a resident of Long Island’s Nassau County, Cuomo said in a news release. The sequencing was conducted at Opentrons Labworks Inc’s Pandemic Response Lab, a
New York City-based commercial lab, and verified at the Wadsworth Center in Albany.
A Connecticut resident who had been hospitalized in New York City was found to have the South African variant last week.
The mutated version of the virus, originally identified in South Africa, was first found in the United States last month. Scientists believe it is more easily spread than other virus strains.
Cuomo said the variant’s arrival in New York means that COVID-19 safety measures like wearing masks and maintaining distance from other people are more important than ever. “We are in a race right now — between our ability to vaccinate and these variants which are actively trying to proliferate — and we will only win that race if we stay smart and disciplined,” he said.
Nassau County Executive Laura
Curran said in a statement, “We don’t believe the South African variant is more deadly, but it may be more contagious. The best response is to continue the tried and true precautions: wearing masks, avoiding social gatherings, distancing, staying home and getting tested when sick.”
In other developments:
■ The U.S. stood Sunday at the brink of a once-unthinkable tally: 500,000 people lost to the coronavirus.
A year into the pandemic, the running total of lives lost was about 498,000 — roughly the population of Kansas City, Missouri, and just shy of the size of Atlanta. The figure compiled by Johns Hopkins University surpasses the number of people who died in 2019 of chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s, flu and pneumonia combined.
The U.S. virus death toll reached 400,000 on Jan. 19.
■ The daily update on COVID-19 numbers posted Sunday by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services listed no deaths for the first time since late September.
Health officials confirmed 403 new cases in the last day, the lowest count since 324 positive tests were registered in late June. The new case average continued its decline with a mark of 610, the lowest number since 595 in early July.
■ The number of patients in California hospitals with COVID-19 slipped below 7,000, a drop of more than a third over two weeks, the state Department of Public Health reported Sunday.
The 6,760 new confirmed cases are more than 85 percent below the mid-december peak of about 54,000. Total cases are approaching 3.45 million.
California reported another 408 deaths, bringing the total since the outbreak began to 49,105 — the highest in the nation.
Despite the grim death count, the positivity rate for people being tested has been falling for weeks.
In Los Angeles County, the daily test positivity rate was 3.8 percent on Saturday, public health officials said.
Epidemiologist Dr. George Rutherford with the University of California, San Francisco said one of the reasons why cases are dropping so fast in California “is because of naturally acquired immunity,” mostly in the southern part of the state. He estimated that 50 percent of
Los Angeles County residents have been infected with the virus at some point.