Santa Clara County health officials warned in a statement on Thursday that the proportion of cases linked to more contagious variants of COVID-19 is increasing in the county and “signals a worrying trend”.
The county asked residents to pay attention to the use of face masks and to avoid traveling and being quarantined if they need to travel.
“Genomic sequencing is allowing us to confirm what we already assumed based on national trends, which is the presence and the unfortunate increase in variants in our community,” Dr. Sara Cody, county health officer, wrote by email. “We are already seeing peaks in other parts of the country, probably driven by variants. Combined with the data we are seeing locally, these are important warning signs that we must continue to minimize the spread. We can still prevent an outbreak from happening here if we keep our prevention measures tested and proven for a little while longer, while increasing our vaccination rates. “
At a live press conference, Cody urged residents not to act as if the pandemic was over.
“We need people to wait a little longer,” she said. “Keep wearing your mask. Delay your trip. Don’t dine indoors. Don’t go into closed bars. Don’t organize an indoor meeting at your home. Even if it’s allowed by state rules, don’t do that. It’s not safe.”
All variants of concern were detected in the municipality and, last week, Santa Clara was the first municipality in the Bay Area to identify the dominant variant in Brazil.
The variant known as P.1 is highly infectious and research has shown that it can reinfect people who have previously had other strains of the virus.
The individual who tested positive for variant P.1 was identified in mid-March, after returning from a trip outside the state, according to the county health department.
In addition, the first two cases of the variants of concern detected in New York (one from each B.1.525 and B.1.526) have now been confirmed in Santa Clara, county officials said.
On March 27, there were 92 confirmed cases of B.1.1.7 (first detected in the United Kingdom), three confirmed cases of B.1.351 (first detected in South Africa), one case of P.1 ( first detected in Japan / Brazil) and more than 1,000 confirmed cases of B.1.427 and B.1.429 (first detected in California).
Viruses are constantly mutating and numerous variants of COVID-19 have emerged in the past few months, including variants from the United Kingdom and South Africa. They are worrying, as researchers believe they can spread more easily and are likely to become the main source of disease.
Initial research suggests that vaccines offer protection against new variants, although they may be slightly less effective and more research is needed.