Health professionals at the Medical University of South Carolina administer free Covid-19 tests in a parking lot between Edmund’s Oast and Butcher & Bee restaurants in Charleston, South Carolina, USA, on Wednesday, January 13, 2021.
Micah Green | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The first cases of Covid-19 in the United States of a new highly contagious strain of the virus found for the first time in South Africa were detected in South Carolina, the state health department said on Thursday.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said the strain, known as B.1.351, was found in two adults with no history of travel or connection with each other. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified health officials in South Carolina late on Wednesday that a sample tested at LabCorp was variant B.1.351, the health department said on Thursday.
The state’s public health laboratory itself later “identified a separate case of the same variant” in a sample tested on Monday, the South Carolina Department of Health said in a statement. Although the strain appears to be highly transmissible, it does not appear to make people sicker, the health department said.
“The arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 variant in our state is an important reminder for all South Carolinaians that the fight against this deadly virus is far from over,” said Dr. Brannon Traxler, interim director of the department, in an announcement.
Mutant strains of the coronavirus have migrated to the United States in recent weeks. Minnesota health officials on Monday identified the first case in the United States of a similar variant first detected in Brazil. The US has also identified more than 300 cases with another strain found for the first time in the UK, known as B.1.1.7, according to recent data from the CDC.
The appearance of these new strains was not a surprise to scientists. The United States is rapidly trying to increase its surveillance efforts to track new strains through genomic sequencing, which may come from abroad or “from our own country,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the new director of the CDC, this week. last.
“The CDC is at the beginning of its efforts to understand this variant and will continue to provide updates as we learn more,” the health agency said in a statement. “The CDC’s recommendations for slowing down propagation – wearing masks, staying at least 6 feet away from others, avoiding crowds, ventilating indoor spaces and washing your hands frequently – will also prevent the spread of this variant.”
Both strains of the virus found in the UK and South Africa share similar mutations, but experts say they developed separately. While it’s no surprise that the virus is mutating, researchers are quickly trying to determine what the changes could mean for newly developed life-saving vaccines and treatments against the disease.
The B.1.351 strain appears to be more problematic than the emerging strain found in the UK, White House health consultant Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday. Fauci said during a news conference that antibodies induced by the vaccine may be less effective in combating this strain, although “it is still well within the protection”.
The first findings published on the bioRxiv prepress server, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, indicate that variant B.1.351 may avoid the antibodies provided by some coronavirus treatments and may reduce the effectiveness of the current line of vaccines available. On Monday, Moderna said its vaccine may be less effective against strain B.1.351 and that it is developing a so-called booster injection to protect itself against this variant “just in case.”
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday that the new mRNA technology used to develop the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines – the only two so far to receive emergency clearance in the U.S. – can be easily adjusted to target variants.
These booster injections would not need to undergo rigorous phase three clinical trials that required thousands of participants, he added.
“You don’t have to make a trial of 30,000 people or 40,000 people,” said Fauci. “You work with the FDA and you can connect information from one trial to another. The bottom line is that we are already working on it.”
‘Feeding Africa’s Second Wave’
The World Health Organization warned on Thursday that the most contagious variants of Covid-19 are “fueling Africa’s second wave” and the variant first identified in South Africa “is prevalent and is fueling record numbers of cases in South Africa and the sub-region. “
According to WHO, strain B.1.351 has now been identified in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, the French Indian Ocean region of Mayotte, Zambia and 24 other non-African nations. On Monday, coronavirus infections in the region have increased by 50% since December 29, compared to the previous four weeks, the WHO said. Deaths from Covid-19 also increased, almost doubling in the same period.
WHO said it is working with the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to set up laboratories to conduct surveillance efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.
The United Nations health agency said that each country should send at least 20 samples to the laboratories, which “will help to map the rapidly evolving situation and better target responses at all levels”.
“The variant that was first detected in South Africa has spread rapidly beyond Africa and what keeps me up at night now is that it is probably circulating in several African countries,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said in a statement.
– CNBC’s Will Feuer contributed to this report.