Alabama health officials said they had confirmed three cases of the UK coronavirus variant in the state, including two in residents under the age of 19. The variant, identified as B.1.1.7, is considered to be more transmissible than others, and British researchers had previously warned that it may have a “greater propensity” to infect children.
The Alabama cases involve two individuals from Montgomery County and one from Jefferson County. It is not clear what the age division is. The health department did not give details about where the transmission may have occurred or the conditions of the patients.
The strain, which was first detected in the UK last year, is being studied by researchers worldwide in an attempt to assess the impact it may have on vaccines, treatment and potential outbreaks. Pfizer and Moderna have ensured their vaccines’ ability to remain effective against the new strain.
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However, none of the vaccines are currently approved for use in children, with Pfizer, which has been approved for use in people aged 16 and over in the U.S., recently filling out applications for a clinical trial involving children aged 12 and over, and Moderna approved for use in the US only for individuals over 18 years of age.
In December, Wendy Barclay, a professor involved with the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group (NERVTAG) and a specialist in virology at Imperial, told Reuters that B.1.1.7. variant enters the human cell differently from other strains, which could indicate “that children are perhaps as susceptible to this virus as adults”.
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“Therefore, given their mixing patterns, one would expect to see more children being infected,” Barclay told Reuters.
However, according to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), children between the ages of 0 and 17 are responsible for just over 10% of the 19 million cases in the United States. To note, there is a difference of about 6 million cases between the CDC and Johns Hopkins University reports, which points to the total number of diseases in the United States at just over 25.6 million.
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Health experts in the United States also admitted that the number of variant cases – which have been reported to the CDC in dozens of states – is likely to be underestimated due to the surveillance of test samples.