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Public health officials reported on Tuesday that the UK variant of the coronavirus, a more contagious strain of the infectious disease, had been detected in Sonoma County.
The California Department of Public Health informed county officials on Monday that the mutation was present in a local COVID-19 test sample.
The variant was discovered after a county resident visited an unidentified local pharmacy to be tested for the pathogen, said Dr Kismet Baldwin, deputy county health director.
Public health investigators should soon have more information on who the variant strain was connected to, including the person’s recent travel history and potential exposure to others, Baldwin said.
On the same day, health officials confirmed the presence of the UK variant in the community, they also reported that Sonoma County had recently made great strides in reducing viral transmission. However, it was not enough for the state this week to finally relax the strict limits on business and public life in place locally since the end of August.
The highly contagious British variant has not been detected by state and federal surveillance programs, in which the county has participated since January.
It was a mystery why the test sample of the virus from the person in question was sent for genetic analysis to an outside lab where the British strain was discovered and reported to state health officials on Tuesday, a Baldwin said.
“We’re still trying to really piece this story together to find out if there is anything else,” she said, noting that county officials had been told the infected resident and a roommate were apparently isolated and not in contact. with others after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Local public health staff have not spoken to the infected resident since learning of confirmation of the UK variant on Monday. Baldwin informed the county’s board of supervisors on Tuesday in an update on the pandemic.
“I don’t think it would be unlikely that there would be more cases (of the variant). But we don’t know, and we are investigating this case as we speak, ”she told supervisors.
Dr John Swartzberg, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley, said the three coronavirus vaccines that the federal government has approved each give a “very robust” immune response for people against the British strain.
“This is one of the reasons we need to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible,” Swartzberg said.
For weeks, Sonoma County health officials expected COVID-19 variants to eventually be found locally, as the coronavirus is constantly mutating, a natural evolution for viruses. State and federal surveillance programs the county is a part of aim to identify variants to slow their spread. Both efforts are in their infancy.
After nearly a year of battling the ongoing pandemic disease, there is now a race to vaccinate as many county residents as possible before a more dangerous variant of COVID-19, like the one in the UK, becomes the most dangerous variant of COVID-19. dominant strain. This total effort is replicated in other parts of California and in many parts of the country and the world.
Baldwin said the British variant spread more easily and that it was possible for it to circulate quickly in the county and across the state.
“It’s unclear at this time, at least for California, if this will contribute significantly to another outbreak or to an increase in the number of cases. We don’t know yet, ”she said. “We are watching it, and the state is watching it.”
Swartzberg said the latest scientific data suggested the UK variant was between 40% and 45% more transmissible than the early strain of COVID-19. There is some evidence that it can lead to more serious illness, he said, but such claims are still speculation.
This variant has probably been present in the United States since September or October, but only became important in early January, experts said.
“Right now it’s doubling every 9-10 days,” Swartzberg said of the British strain. “She will likely become the dominant strain by the end of the month.”
Variant B.1.1.7, which first appeared last fall in the UK, had been detected in southern California.
A South African variant, B.1.351, shares some characteristics with the British variant and is also considered to be more contagious than the current dominant strain.
And a local variant, known as the California variant, B.1429, has been detected in Marin and Lake counties but not in Sonoma.
County health officials have submitted a small number of resident COVID-19 specimens to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for analysis to detect variants of the coronavirus. Baldwin said the county has so far received no confirmation of the variants found in local samples sent to the CDC.
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