The most contagious variant of COVID-19 first identified in South Africa has been confirmed in Colorado for the first time, with three cases detected in a Chaffee County prison that is experiencing the third coronavirus outbreak, state health officials said. Sunday night.
Two employees at the Buena Vista Correctional Complex and one inmate tested positive for variant B.1.351, said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
State officials have not released any information about the health conditions of the three people.
Prior to its discovery in Colorado, 81 cases of the South African variant were confirmed in 20 jurisdictions in the United States, including California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, New York and Maine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The South African variant was first detected in that country in October and, as the B.1.1.7 strain first identified in the United Kingdom, it is believed to spread more easily and quickly than other versions of COVID-19 , according to the CDC.
The first confirmed cases of variant B.1.1.7 in the United States were detected in Colorado in late December.
Since then, state health officials have confirmed 190 cases of what they call “variants of concern”, which include B.1.1.7 and other strains of COVID-19 “that can spread more easily, cause more serious illness, reduce the effectiveness of the treatments or vaccine, or (are) more difficult to detect using current tests. ”
That is a small number compared to the total of 436,602 cases of coronaviruses detected in the state last year, but public health officials fear that highly contagious strains could take off before a sufficient population is inoculated against the virus – or that some variants can prove more resistant to the new vaccines.
The discovery of the South African strain in Colorado came after the three samples from the Buena Vista prison were chosen at random for genetic sequencing as part of the state’s ongoing surveillance analysis for variants.
The state health department now plans to sequence all positive samples of COVID-19 from the prison to look for variants, the agency said in a press release. Anyone exposed to the prison will be quarantined for 14 days, health officials said.
Buena Vista prison first experienced an outbreak of COVID-19 last July, with 197 infected inmates and 16 employees tested positive, according to state health department records. A second outbreak occurred in October, with 314 positive test inmates and 60 infected employees. An inmate died in that second outbreak, according to state records.
The current outbreak in prison – the third – was declared on February 24, and on Wednesday included three inmate infections and 11 employee cases.
Due to the conditions of the outbreak, Buena Vista inmates were tested for COVID-19 weekly from October 19 to February 3, just before the second outbreak was declared over, according to state health officials. Weekly testing resumed on February 22, close to the start of the current outbreak.
Corrections Department staff members are tested weekly using the most accurate PCR tests and, since November, daily with rapid BinaxNOW COVID-19 antigen tests, according to state health officials.
Inmates take CRP tests when they show symptoms, are exposed to someone with a positive result, or when the surveillance test is being done during outbreaks.
On Monday, a team from the state health department will be in Buena Vista prison to conduct PCR tests and host a vaccine clinic for officials and inmates, officials said. A vaccine clinic is planned for the end of the week for family members as well as close contacts with the team.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment policy allows flexibility to deviate from the state’s prioritization of vaccines “for the emerging risk of rapid spread of COVID-19 (for example, variant transmission),” the agency said in its statement to the press.
To date, prisoners have only qualified for vaccination if they meet age or health requirements according to the current phase of the state’s distribution plan.