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A new variant of the coronavirus originating in Colombia has been detected in South Florida.
The B.1.621 variant has not yet received a Greek letter designation from the World Health Organization (WHO), but it is starting to have an impact in Miami.
Carlos Miyoga, CEO of Jackson Health System in Miami, told Local 10 that the strain accounts for about 10% of cases in the region.
Health experts suspect that the constant travel between Miami and Colombia has caused the variant to travel around the state and are urging residents to get vaccinated.
Jackson Health System CEO Carlon Miyoga told Local 10 his healthcare system is seeing an increase in cases of the B.1.621 variant, which originated in Colombia.
B.1.621 peaked in Colombia in late June, when it accounted for 70 percent of cases in the South American nation (above)
The variant was first discovered in January in Colombia, where, at its peak in late June, it accounted for around 70 percent of cases.
It has since been traced in 28 other countries as well, according to epidemic.info.
The European Center for Disease Control and Prevention has listed B.1.621 as a variant of interest.
The named variants often have some sort of quality that makes them unique from other strains of the virus.
The Indian variant ‘Delta’, for example, is very contagious and deserves its own designation.
For now, experts aren’t sure what unique qualities the unnamed variant might have.
“The only time it becomes important is if it gives viruses a selective advantage, which we have seen with the delta variant,” John Sellick, professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Buffalo, told the Washington Post. .
– We’ll see with this one. . . . What we need to see in two weeks, or in four weeks, is it going to take another turn and end up being more?
Cases of the variant are still barely registering nationwide, and they also still represent a small portion of the total COVID-19 epidemic in Florida.
The variant, however, crossed the threshold of 1% of the total number of cases for the first time this month.
Variant B.1.621 eclipsed 1% of total cases in America for the first time recently (above)
Cases of B.1.621 are still low in Florida, although they are increasing in recent days after remaining at zero for almost a month (above)
Some fear it will explode in the coming weeks across the country, as many visit Florida in the summer and then return to their home communities with the variant.
“If you have a lot of unvaccinated people coming together and going home, you could have very rapid transmission within a few weeks,” said Dr Preeti Malani, head of health for the Division of Infectious Diseases of the University of Michigan. The post office.
Another variant, the Delta variant, is currently causing a massive outbreak in the state of Florida.
Day-to-day COVID data in Florida is no longer being reported, after Governor Ron DeSantis declared the pandemic defeated in May.
Since the pandemic was “beaten,” cases have exploded in Sunshine State.
Florida is experiencing a wave of COVID, although Governor Ron DeSantis prevented the state from reporting daily viral data in May
White House data revealed that the state accounted for 20% of active cases in the country at some point two weeks ago.
The most recent data shows the state averages more than 13,500 cases per day, more than double the 5,000 cases per day figure recorded just two weeks ago.
Florida has a higher vaccination rate than many of its peers going through similar epidemics, with 57% of the population having received at least one injection of a COVID-19 vaccine.
In Miami-Dade County, it’s even better, as 74% of residents are at least partially vaccinated.
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