BOSTON (WHDH) – Nineteen additional cases of the COVID-19 variant originally found in the United Kingdom have been identified in Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced on Sunday that the total number of cases of variant B.1.1.7 had risen from 10 to 29.
The first variant case in the United States was identified in late December 2020 and in the Bay State on January 17, 2021.
Four of those 29 cases have evidence from recent travel, suggesting that most cases identified in Massachusetts are acquired by the community, Mass said. DPH.
“We should definitely be concerned,” said Dr. Paul Edward Sax, clinical director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “A smaller amount of this virus can cause us to get the disease than with the previous variant that was circulating.”
Sax says this variant is 30 to 50 percent more contagious than the original COVID-19 strain.
State authorities have detected 17 cases in Worcester County, one in Hampden County, two in Middlesex County, six in Norfolk County, two in Plymouth County and one in Suffolk County.
People infected with the variant in Massachusetts were between 4 and almost 70 years old, said DPH.
“It looks like the disease is quite similar,” said Sax. “It also appears that people who have this specific variant have, on average, what we call higher viral loads than people who had the previous variant. This probably also explains why it is more contagious to other people. “
Sax added that it is still up for debate whether the new strain causes more serious illness.
He says the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines provide the best chance of protection against this strain.
“I am very pleased that the number of cases is low in Massachusetts,” he said. “They are down in both the community and the hospital, and we want to maintain that trend.”
Mass. DPH continued that the best defense against a rapid increase in cases of worrying variants is to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by wearing masks and practicing social detachment.
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