COLOMBIA, SC (WIS) – The South Carolina Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are working to limit the transmission of the highly contagious new virus South Africa’s COVID-19 variant detected in South Carolina late wednesday.
“The CDC and DHEC may never be able to determine with certainty where these two individuals contracted the South African variant, and our attention is focused on limiting the spread,” explained DHEC’s acting director, Dr. Brannon Traxler.
Both agencies are asking everyone to commit again to masking, social detachment and hand washing. Some health officials warn that if we don’t, we may see another spike in cases and hospitalizations.
Prisma Health’s infectious disease doctor, Dr. Divya Ahuja, says it is too early to panic, but he believes the variant has already spread across our state.
“There are more of these variants than just these two cases,” said Dr. Ahuja. “How many? We don’t know yet.”
Health officials say these mutated versions of COVID-19 spread more easily and quickly, but there is still no evidence that they cause more serious illness.
Ahuja says that as a nation, we are not sequencing or looking for variants of COVID-19 as much as we should. That’s because he says the materials for that are limited.
“The CDC is sending more resources to DHEC,” he noted. “In fact, I confirmed this with DHEC today. They are sending more resources, the ability to do more genomic tests and look for these mutations. We can take the number and then track the contact, and DHEC can try to limit the number of cases. “
Vaccine manufacturers are also working to anticipate these new variants. Moderna is adjusting its vaccine because this South African variant may weaken immunity over time. So how often do we need to receive the COVID-19 vaccines?
“I imagine it will be a vaccine once a year or once every two years, at least in the foreseeable future,” said Dr. Ahuja.
As these new variants are more contagious, Ahuja says that some countries are experiencing a social distance of almost three meters instead of six, but health experts say that the mutated versions of COVID-19 spread in the same way as the original virus.
“The same precautions against illnesses that we adopt, such as masks and physical distance, are what protect us from this strain and from all currently known strains of the virus that causes COVID-19,” explained Traxler.
Some health officials note that, in order to anticipate these variants and prevent them from becoming dominant in our communities, as we have seen in the United Kingdom and South Africa, we need to increase our vaccination efforts. South Carolina is scheduled to receive approximately 10,000 additional doses next week, but DHEC says demand is still outpacing supply.
The CDC warned that the UK variant could become dominant in the United States in the spring.
Health officials say there is still limited research on this South African variant.
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