South Carolina identified 24 cases of new, more communicable versions of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, signaling that the variants were not fully contained when they were first detected in January.
The state Department of Health and Environmental Control reports that as of February 17, South Carolina has at least 21 cases of a variant that first appeared in South Africa and three cases of the variant that date back to the United Kingdom.
DHEC had previously released only three cases of the variants – two cases of the virus from South Africa and one from the United Kingdom. The agency did not immediately answer questions about whether the new cases were related to each other.
The newly identified cases probably do not represent the true number of variant cases in the state, however.
Detecting a variant is more complicated than diagnosing a case of COVID-19 because it requires scientists to first decode the virus’s genetic material. Relatively few virus samples undergo this analysis, although DHEC and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recently stepped up genome sequencing efforts.
In January, South Carolina became the first state to detect the South African variant, which has not yet been widely found in the United States. The variant, officially called B.1.351, was found only in 10 states, according to the CDC.
In its most recent update, published on February 18, the CDC reported a total of 21 cases of B.1.351. The DHEC release will bring the national total to at least 40, including 15 from the Pee Dee region in the northeast corner of South Carolina. Another five were found in Lowcountry, which runs from Beaufort and Charleston to Calhoun County in the definition of DHEC.
Meanwhile, the UK variant, called B.1.1.7, has made fewer inroads into South Carolina, although it has spread more widely across the country, reaching all but eight states. The CDC reports more than 1,500 cases in the United States.
B.1.351 and B.1.1.7 are two of the three coronavirus mutations that the CDC described as “worrying variants” because they seem to spread more readily than older versions of the virus. And new studies have found evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines may not elicit such a strong response against the South African variant, although the vaccines still prevent serious illness and death.
The third variant of concern, found for the first time in Brazil, has not yet been detected in South Carolina. The three variants have evolved separately from each other.
Public health officials say measures that reduce the risk of contracting the virus – such as wearing a mask and keeping distance from others – still work against the new variants.
“While there is an indication that these variants may be more transmissible than the original strain, that does not change our public health recommendations,” said Dr. Linda Bell, an epidemiologist in the state of South Carolina.
And while the emergence of new variants has raised concerns about the increasing spread of COVID-19, they do not appear to have changed the course of the pandemic in South Carolina to date. The number of new cases has been steadily dropping since January, with the state’s winter wave peaking, although the virus is still widespread.
The state is diagnosing an average of 1,903 new infections every day, near the peak of the summer wave in South Carolina.
Catch up Thad Moore at 843-937-5703. Follow him on Twitter @thadmoore.