Governor Jared Polis and officials have announced that Denver and several other Colorado counties will be moved to Red Level in a newly renovated state of color-coded “u2019s COVID-19 at the Boettcher mansion in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday. November 17, 2020.
Hyoung Chang | Denver Post | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – Colorado health officials said on Wednesday that they are investigating a second potential case of a new and potentially more infectious strain of Covid-19.
“There is still a lot we don’t know about this variant,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis said on Wednesday, advising Coloradans to continue to obey CDC guidelines in the new year.
On Tuesday, Colorado health officials confirmed the first case of the coronavirus B.1.1.7 variant in the country.
The infected individual, a man in his 20s, has no travel history and is isolated with mild symptoms, officials said on Tuesday.
Both the confirmed case and the second patient are members of the Colorado National Guard. Both individuals supported the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Simla, about an hour and a half south of Denver.
Authorities said on Wednesday that there were a total of six members of the Colorado National Guard working on the facility.
“Both cases are from Colorado National Guard personnel who have been deployed to support the staff of the Good Samaritan Society’s Simla nursing home,” explained state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy of the Department of Public Health and Colorado environment.
She added that the individuals were tested on December 24 at the state laboratory, a routine measure for National Guard members working in close proximity to Covid-19 patients or areas subject to outbreaks.
“We are currently investigating two possibilities for how these individuals may have acquired their infections,” said Herlihy.
“Given the detection of the variant in Colorado, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have allowed us to temporarily pause visitation to nursing homes so that this population can be vaccinated quickly,” said Polis.
“Not only is health risk felt more acutely by older Coloradans, but social isolation is a difficult and emotional part that so many nursing home residents have faced,” he said, adding that the move would safeguard the state’s oldest community. .
Dr. Emily Travanty, director of the Laboratory Services Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said employees are currently analyzing 24 suspicious samples that may contain mutations. She explained that there was not enough data to link the additional 24 samples to variant B.1.1.7.
In a call on Wednesday with reporters, Dr. Henry Walke, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the new variant appears to spread “easier and faster than other strains”. Walke also said that it does not appear to result in worse infections or an increased risk of death.
Walke said the individual in Colorado who was infected with the new strain of the virus did not have a travel history, “which suggests that this variant was passed from person to person in the United States.”
He added that, considering how widely the variant has spread across the UK, her arrival in the US “was expected”.
Preliminary analysis of the new variant, first identified in the UK, suggests that it may be the culprit behind the recent rise in cases in Britain.
The CDC said in December that the new strain may already be circulating in the United States without notice. The CDC cited ongoing travel between the UK and the US as an explanation for the possible arrival of the new variant.
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The discovery of the strain in Britain caused the closure of borders in European countries such as Ireland, France, Belgium and Germany, as well as in countries outside the continent.
Last week, the British government confirmed that another infectious variant of coronavirus identified in South Africa had also emerged in the United Kingdom. The South African strain has not yet been identified in the United States.