A Long Island resident in Nassau County has the first known case of South Africa’s COVID-19 variant, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Sunday. The highly transmissible variant B.1.351, first identified in South Africa, may reduce the effectiveness of some vaccines.
A study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the ability of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine to neutralize the South African variant was decreased by two-thirds. In January, Moderna also said that its vaccine was less effective against variant B.1.351 in laboratory experiments, but that its vaccine would still provide some degree of protection against the variant.
Pharmaceutical companies Novavax and Johnson & Johnson also announced in late January that their candidate vaccines, which have not yet been authorized for use by the FDA, appear to be significantly less effective against the South African variant. Research indicates that their vaccines are resisting well against the original coronavirus and the UK variant, which Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), predicted could become the COVID-19 strain. dominant in the United States at the end of March. The UK variant is doubling in the U.S. approximately every ten days, according to a study released on February 7.
Earlier this month, South African health officials paused the launch of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after a study found “disappointing” results against variant B.1.351. The country had received 1 million doses of the vaccine and was about to start applying it to the public.
In the U.S., the variant has so far been detected in at least nine states, including a Connecticut resident who tested positive for the variant while in hospital in New York last week. The UK variant is currently more prevalent in the state of New York, with 70 cases confirmed according to the CDC, and Cuomo said the state is currently in a “walking race” between the spread of the new variants and the number of vaccinated people.
“With the discovery of a case of the South African variant in the state, it is more important than ever for New Yorkers to be vigilant, wear masks, wash their hands and remain socially distant,” Cuomo reiterated in a statement on Sunday. “We are in a race now – between our ability to vaccinate and those variants that are actively trying to proliferate – and we will only win that race if we remain smart and disciplined.”
The statewide positive test rate for COVID-19 is currently at 2.99% on an average of seven days, according to Cuomo’s office, which noted that this is the first time the positivity rate across the state has dropped to less than 3 percent since November 23. Data from the State Department of Health show NYC with a positive test rate of 4.4% over an average of seven days.
Further details about the Nassau County resident with the South African variant were not immediately available. It is not clear whether the individual has recently traveled outside the country. Nassau County executive Laura Curran said in a statement, “We don’t believe the South African variant is more deadly, but it can be more contagious.”