Highly contagious virus variant identified in Michigan’s third county

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A new, more contagious strain of coronavirus has been reported in a third Michigan county for the first time.

Health officials say a confirmed case of a highly contagious COVID-19 variant, known as B117, was reported in Kent County on Sunday, February 7.

On February 5, a total of 28 known cases of the variant were identified in Michigan in the last month, but the cases have only been reported in Washtenaw and Wayne counties.

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Read: 28 cases of COVID-19 B117 confirmed in Washtenaw, Wayne counties, officials say

The new case reported on the opposite side of the state on Sunday appears to confirm health officials’ belief that more cases of the virus variant are likely to exist in Michigan, they just haven’t been identified yet.

“It is fundamentally a race for the coverage of our population; a race that opposes vaccination efforts against the transmission of infections, ”said Dr. Adam London, Director of the Kent County Department of Health. “While we are working to minimize the impact of COVID-19 infections, variant B.1.1.7 is giving the virus greater speed.”

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By nature, a virus – especially an RNA virus like the coronavirus – constantly mutates as it infects people by making copies of itself in the process. Occasionally, several individual mutations of the virus can accumulate or occur at the same time – giving rise to a new version of the virus with new characteristics, which is called a variant.

The B117 variant, which was first found in the UK in late 2020, is of particular concern because of its increased transmissibility: health experts say the B117 variant is 50 percent more contagious than the dominant US coronavirus strain today.

Experts warn that variant B117 is likely to become the dominant source of COVID infection in the United States by the end of March this year.

Michigan’s first known case of the virus variant was identified on January 16 in a woman from Washtenaw County who had recently traveled to the UK

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Since then, all variant cases in the state have been found only in Washtenaw and Wayne counties. Washtenaw County officials say all known cases of variant B117 in that county are linked to the University of Michigan community.

After the variant outbreak started in the UM community, all college sports were put on hold until February 6, and all college students who lived on the Ann Arbor campus were invited to stay home until February 7 to help contain the spread of the virus.

Related: University of Michigan identifies virus outbreaks in off-campus homes

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Three variants of COVID-19, including variant B117, have been identified in the USA so far. Only variant B117 was discovered in Michigan on February 7.

Health experts have said that existing therapies and vaccines are still effective against the B117 variant, but that remains to be determined. Some preliminary research shows that existing vaccines are effective against variant B117 – albeit to a lesser extent – but are less effective against other variants, such as variant B1351, which was found in South Africa.

More: Everything we know about virus variants in Michigan, USA

To help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other contagious variants, people are encouraged to continue to take precautions, including social distance, wearing masks, practicing good hygiene and avoiding crowds and meetings.

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