Eight cases of the COVID variant first identified in the UK have been reported in Alabama, as the state health agency said it is stepping up its efforts to identify the strains.
Dr. Karen Landers said the Alabama Department of Public Health is partnering with several private and commercial laboratories in the state to expand its ability to identify strains of COVID-19 that are known to be more transmissible and can hamper progress in reducing the number of coronavirus cases in the state.
Eight cases of the highly transmissible COVID-19 B.1.1.7 variant have been identified in residents of Autauga, Jefferson, Madison, Mobile and Montgomery counties. Only a few of these cases reported travel outside the state before becoming ill, indicating that the variant strain is already circulating in Alabama, ADPH said.
“The identified cases correspond to the counties where a small part of the laboratories is collecting samples for sequencing, so there is still much to be determined about the spread of the variant,” said ADPH in a statement.
Infectious disease experts and the Centers for Disease Control have indicated that current vaccines must be effective against the strain, but studies are ongoing. ADPH said that B.1.1.7. variant was not “definitely associated with worse disease outcomes”.
ADPH is asking healthcare professionals to take samples from patients if they have a recent loss of smell or taste or have obvious COVID-19 symptoms, but the tests are negative for coronavirus. The samples must be sent to the ADPH Bureau of Clinical Laboratories or to a laboratory that does the sequencing.