South Carolina health officials said on Thursday that they had detected two cases of the South African variant of COVID-19, the first cases in the United States.
So far, the variant does not appear to cause more serious illnesses, but the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement that “preliminary data suggests that this variant may spread more easily and quickly than other variants”.
“This is scary,” because it means that there are probably more undetected cases in the state, said Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious physician at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, in an interview with CBS News. “It is probably more widespread.”
Officials said the South Carolina cases did not appear to be related or related to travel.
It is normal for viruses to mutate. So far, variants from Britain and Brazil have also been discovered.
WHO probe set to start
In other news from COVID-19, researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO) emerged from a two-week quarantine on Thursday in Wuhan, China, to begin their work in search of the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Members of the international team boarded a bus after leaving the hotel in the afternoon.
China, which for months rejected requests for an international investigation, promised adequate access for researchers. The team is expected to spend several weeks interviewing people from research institutes, hospitals and a market linked to many of the first cases.
WHO said the mission’s goal is not to blame the pandemic, but to find out how it started to better prevent and combat future outbreaks.
Focus on the future
“We are looking for answers here that can save us in the future, not guilty and not guilty,” said Mike Ryan, WHO’s chief emergency officer, earlier this month.
The new coronavirus appeared in Wuhan in late 2019 and has since spread around the world, infecting more than 100 million people and killing about 2.2 million.
More than 120 countries have called for an independent investigation into the origins of the virus, with many governments accusing China of not doing enough to contain its spread.
“It is imperative that we get to the bottom of the early days of the pandemic in China, and we support an international investigation that we think must be robust and clear,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Wednesday.
Concern remains in many countries about access and supply of COVID-19 vaccines.
The main Japanese government spokesman said on Thursday that AstraZeneca would produce more than 90 million doses of its vaccine in Japan.
“We believe it is very important to be able to produce vaccines in-house,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters.
Like many countries that already carry out vaccination campaigns, Japan plans to prioritize medical professionals when it starts administering vaccines in late February.
Japan has arranged for the purchase of 120 million doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. The vaccine requires a two-dose regimen for each person.
Doses for EU
The European Union and AstraZeneca clashed this week after the company said it would have to cut planned deliveries to the EU because of production delays.
EU officials are demanding that doses be delivered on time and threaten to place export controls on vaccines made within the EU.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday that EU President Ursula von der Leyen assured him that no EU action would affect shipments to Canada.