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Eight cases of COVID variants first identified in the UK have been reported in Alabama as the public health agency said it is stepping up efforts to identify the strains.
Dr Karen Landers said the Alabama Department of Public Health has partnered with several private and commercial labs in the state to expand its ability to identify strains of COVID-19 that are known to be more transmissible and could derail progress towards reducing the number of coronavirus cases as is.
Eight cases of the highly transmissible variant of COVID-19 B.1.1.7 have been identified in residents of Autauga, Jefferson, Madison, Mobile and Montgomery counties. Only a few of those cases reported travel out of state before becoming ill, indicating that the variant strain is already circulating in Alabama, ADHD said.
“The cases that have been identified correspond to counties where a small portion of the labs collect samples for sequencing, so much remains to be determined on the spread of the variant,” ADPH said in a statement.
Infectious disease experts and the Centers for Disease Control have said current vaccines should be effective against the strain, but studies are ongoing. ADPH stated that B.1.1.7. The variant was not “definitely linked to poorer disease outcomes.”
The ADPH is asking healthcare providers to take samples from patients if they have recently lost their smell or taste or have obvious symptoms of COVID-19, but test negative for the coronavirus. Samples should be submitted to the ADPH Clinical Laboratory Office or to a laboratory that performs sequencing.
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