A mutant and more transmissible strain of the virus that causes COVID-19 was found in Summit County, officials said on Monday, the third occurrence of the so-called “UK variant” identified in Utah.
It comes at a time of local optimism, as holiday-related COVID increases have largely decreased and county cases are at their lowest since autumn, totally 65% lower than the January 9 maximum.
Summit County Health Director Rich Bullough said the variant was found in a COVID-19 sample from a woman under the age of 30 in Summit County. No other information was made available about her case, including when she was diagnosed or the severity of her illness.
Bullough’s update to the Summit County Health Council on Monday focused on what he called “lots of good news”, including several metrics for improving the state of the COVID-19 pandemic locally.
“I just can’t say how happy I am looking at these numbers compared to what we were in,” Bullough told the board.
He cautioned residents to continue to follow public health guidelines, including avoiding crowds, wearing masks and washing their hands frequently, saying that encouraging trends can easily be reversed.
And the arrival of the variant may contribute to this reversal, said Bullough, since the strain is more contagious than the traditional virus that causes COVID-19, called SARS-CoV-2.
UK officials reported the existence of the new December 14 variant. In January, Utah officials announced that the mutant virus had entered the state, found in a man from Salt Lake County who was diagnosed in December. This man was also relatively young, between 25 and 44 years old and had only mild symptoms of COVID-19.
Vaccines manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer, the only ones approved in the U.S., are considered effective against the mutation, according to state health officials.
Despite initial reports by UK scientists, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said more studies are needed to determine whether the variant is actually more deadly than other forms of the virus.
The Utah Public Health Laboratory has been studying the composition of the virus that is causing COVID-19, according to a statement from the municipality, with the aim of sequencing the genome of 10% of samples from across the state.
On January 31, the CDC reported 467 cases of the new variant in the USA and that has spread to most states and many other countries.
Although the strain may no longer be deadly, authorities have indicated that a more contagious virus may still be a cause for alarm.
When cases increase, the virus finds its way through family groups for the most vulnerable people, officials said, eventually leading to hospitalizations and deaths.
Summit County epidemiologist Louise Saw told the council that the sudden increase on New Year’s Eve took longer to subside because the disease continued to infect roommates and family members days and weeks after her close contacts contracted the virus.
She also said that the latest increase affected young people, indicating that a possible “New Year’s party crowd” had been infected.
Bullough said that most new cases continue to emanate from small group meetings. Although the holidays were far behind, some board members wondered if the Super Bowl parties would spread the virus in the same way.
Since COVID-19 recently entered the human population, the long-term effects of the disease remain unknown, even in the most moderate-looking cases.
Summit County councilor and new member of the Health Council, Roger Armstrong, warned the council not to minimize the seemingly benign cases, indicating that he continued to deal with the symptoms of his struggle with the virus.
An increase in the number of cases, which the UK variant can boost, would also increase the likelihood that the virus will evolve into more dangerous variants.
“For the virus to mutate, it needs to replicate and to replicate it needs to have a host,” said deputy county manager Janna Young at a public meeting last week, echoing recent statements by national health officials. calling on Americans to get a vaccine and continue to follow health guidelines to make it more difficult for the virus to spread.
Utah hospitals remain overcrowded, and Bullough told the council that Park City Hospital is discharging some patients for home care when, in non-pandemic times, they would have remained hospitalized.
He said hospitalization rates are two weeks or more from changes in rates for new cases, and indicated that he expects hospitalization rates to continue to fall.
On Sunday, the percentage of intensive care unit beds in use in the 16 Utah hospitals that have the most patients with COVID was 82%. This corresponds to the lowest total since the beginning of November and is below the 85% limit at which authorities say the level of service decreases.