State confirms new strain here
Potentially more contagious variant first identified in Britain is found in San Diego man.
Potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus was f irst seen in Britain.
The new, potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus f irst identif ied in Britain has been found in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday.
He did not specify where in the state the variant was identified, but San Diego County officials announced later in the day that they had confirmed the strain in a 30year- old man who tested positive there after developing symptoms Sunday.
Officials said the man had “no travel history.” As a result, “we believe this is not an isolated case in San Diego County,” Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said during a news conference.
“While it’s been pointed out that there is not yet evidence that the strain has any more severe symptoms, there is significant evidence that it does spread considerably faster, that it is much more contagious,” he said.
That’s all the more reason why county officials “continue to encourage the public and plead with the public to please come together, especially over the next 72 hours and the New Year’s holiday, to please follow the public health order,” Fletcher added.
The f irst reported U. S. case of COVID- 19 caused by the variant was detected in Colorado, officials there announced Tuesday.
Newsom disclosed the recent finding during a virtual conversation with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious- disease official — who said he was not surprised by the development, given the strain’s prevalence in Britain and how common travel is between there and the United States.
“I don’t think that Californians should feel that this is something odd,” he said. “This is something that’s expected.”
Mutations in the coronavirus are also not unanticipated, Fauci said, since “the more you replicate, the more you mutate. So, when you have a lot of virus that’s circulating in the community, it means it’s infecting a lot of people; it’s replicating a lot.”
The “overwhelming majority of mutations are irrelevant,” he continued, but “every once in a while, you get a mutation that does impact a function of the virus.”
“It appears, from what we’ve learned from the U. K. and what we’ll prove here, that this particular mutation does in fact make the virus better at transmitting from one person to another,” he said.
Some scientists, however, are skeptical that genetic changes in the strain, known as B. 1.1.7, make it more contagious.
There are other possible explanations for the variant’s rapid spread in England, such as its transmission through dense communities and among people who are less likely to wear face coverings and socially distance.
Either way, “there’s no indication at all that it increases the virulence … the ability to make you sick or kill you,” Fauci said of the variant, adding that it appears existing vaccines also remain effective.
Officials have yet to f ind any evidence of the variant in Los Angeles County, which the coronavirus is already hitting particularly hard, according to Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.
“This doesn’t mean that the variant is not circulating in L. A. County,” she cautioned during a briefing Wednesday.
“We have thousands and thousands of people getting tested every day, and we are just able to sample a small number of those test results and do the gene sequencing.”
Whether the variant is present or not, she added, “doesn’t change the need for all of us to use the strategies that we have available right now to limit exposure and spread of the virus.”