Eye on mutation

City COVID variant doesn’t stir fear in docs

New Yorkers shouldn’t be too concerned yet about the new COVID mutation that’s circulating in the city, health officials said Thursday.

The mutation — known among scientists as B.1.526 — first showed up in samples taken in November, but officials said they still don’t know whether the new strain is more virulent than more common COVID strains or whether it’s resistant to vaccines.

“Right now, we need to just consider this a variant of interest — something that’s interesting that we need to follow and track,” said Dr. Jay Varma, Mayor de Blasio’s top public health adviser. “It doesn’t change anything about our public health concern.”

Varma divided variants into three categories, each carrying with it a different level of concern — variants that don’t pose any additional problems, others that are still being researched, and a third category that scientists know for certain pose additional risks.

The B.1.526 variant is among several that have developed in recent months. Its existence was first reported by the New York Times, and comes at a time when COVID infection rates are declining both in the Big Apple and around the country.

But infection rates in New York City have also dipped at a slower rate than elsewhere.

Two studies that examined the new strain — one from Columbia University and the other from CalTech — have not yet been peer-reviewed, but show the strain is helping to drive infection rates.

According to the CalTech study, B.1.526 cases made up 27% of viral sequences in their database by February.

Mayor de Blasio and health officials have attributed the city’s comparably higher rate of infections to its density and the higher rate of testing compared to other parts of the country.

New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi said Thursday there is no evidence “at this point” to indicate COVID variants are to blame for the current trajectory of cases, or that the latest variant is concentrated in any specific parts of the city.

“The science around this is just less established compared to other variants, like the UK variant, which we are tracking very closely as well,” Chokshi said. “Whether it’s a new strain that spreads more easily or causes more severe illness or reduces vaccine effectiveness, we have no indication that that’s the case yet.”

According to Varma, the city Health Department has worked “non-stop” on improving its ability to detect new strains, and the city is now working to trace how they’ve spread.

De Blasio on Thursday tried to tamp down fears over the new COVID variant.

“People hear variant — it is a cause for concern, of course. There’s something about it that’s unknown, and that gets people worried. I don’t blame anyone who’s feeling that way,” he said. “[But] we shouldn’t assume the worst. We should say, ‘We need the full truth. We need the facts.’ ”