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Researchers at two universities said Friday’s testing confirmed the first known cases of the so-called California strain of COVID-19 in Oregon and that additional genomic sequencing showed more evidence of the British strain in several parts of the state.
Officials at Oregon State University and Oregon Health & Science University have confirmed that their labs have detected these strains by genomic sequencing in recent weeks.
Earlier this week, the state announced at least three positive cases involving the British variant – with cases in Washington, Yamhill and Multnomah counties. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says this variant is more easily transmitted but that the two vaccines on the market – Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna – should be effective against it.
State health officials and researchers disclosed the latest information on the California strain at a press conference Friday morning that also included good news: confirmed cases, hospitalizations and – at least last week – COVID-19-related deaths are on the decline. Additionally, the latest state modeling shows that if current predictions hold, the average case rate in mid-February could be 420 diagnosed cases per day.
That’s significantly lower than the records set last month, when daily cases eclipsed 2,000 on December 4, and would drop Oregon to case levels not seen since October.
Dr Dean Sidelinger, epidemiologist and state health official, said the forecast further proved the Oregon people were doing their best to meet public health guidelines – like washing hands, social distancing, and wearing masks.
He noted that weekly cases had dropped by 40% – from more than 1,100 on average to around 712, which is similar to declines across the country.
But Sidelinger noted that 25 of the state’s 36 counties were at extreme risk of spreading the virus. He said people need to remain vigilant because new variants or people relaxing their social distancing could cause the numbers to rise again.
“We believe the available vaccines will prove effective against the variants,” said Sidelinger. “We have to keep going,” he said of social distancing.
Oregon state officials have confirmed that the British strain, which had previously only been detected in Portland, Yamhill and Washington counties, was present in Bend. The university sampled the wastewater from that area on December 22, and tests confirmed the mutant strain on January 21. Federal officials have said it could be predominant in the United States by March.
“We will see COVID-19 variants increase and decrease in abundance in our population over time and the rise of a new variant is not necessarily alarming,” said Dr. Melissa Sutton, medical director of pathogens respiratory viruses from the Oregon Health Authority. A declaration. “However, variant surveillance is critical to our understanding of disease transmission, disease severity, ability to avoid testing, vaccine effectiveness, and resistance to treatment.”
The state of Oregon separately confirmed the presence of the California variant in wastewater samples from Albany, Forest Grove, Klamath Falls, Lincoln City and Silverton. He also detected this strain in five people on the school’s Corvallis campus.
The university has performed genetic sequencing on more than 1,100 samples, it said in a statement. The majority, some 936 samples, were taken from wastewater samples, while the rest were analyzed through the university’s COVID-19 testing program.
The university said the California strain was first detected last March.
“It doesn’t have the mutation in the spike protein that makes the other variants so worrying,” the school said in a statement, “but lab tests have shown that his mutation can reduce antibody binding, which which could affect the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine, although it is not known how well the lab tests will mimic real-world infections.
Oregon Health & Science University has also detected the two California cases – one in Washington County detected from a sample taken in November, and a second from an undetermined location from a late December sample. .
“OHSU has also identified an isolated case – which shares similar mutations of L452R – in Wasco County,” spokeswoman Tracy Brawley said in an email, using the genetic code now known as the variant. Californian. “Watch this closely to determine the impact.”
Another university lab was just brought online with genomic sequencing testing capabilities on Friday, which could help the state speed up its testing capacity and further determine where new COVID-19 variants could appear.
The University of Oregon said it conducted its first genomic sequencing analysis on COVID-10 samples on Friday. “The results have not been fully analyzed to determine if any variants are found in these samples,” Kay Jarvis, a spokesperson for the university said in an email. “The lab is capable and ready to assist the county and state with genomic testing if it is enlisted to do so.”
Health officials and academics touted the importance of knowing which strains of the virus are spreading on Friday, especially since the state is still vaccinating people and months remain to be achieved. semblance of collective immunity. Their statements came more than a week after officials at the Oregon Health Authority said they did not know how many samples taken from Oregonians had been examined for the UK variant.
Researchers aren’t sure the California variant poses an additional risk of increased transmission or death, but they said detecting the variant and monitoring its spread is vital to understanding the mutation.
Meanwhile, the latest modeling from Oregon suggests transmission has fallen to just 0.81 new infections for each active infection, significantly lower than the rate in early December when housekeeper Kate Brown and others warned that “The most difficult days of the pandemic were yet to come”.
Patrick Allen, director of the state health authority, said Oregon “remains ahead of most other states” in terms of the percentage of its population that has been vaccinated – 15th nationally – and the percentage of received doses that were administered, at 23rd.
He also noted that Oregon still has one of the lowest infection and death rates in the country.
– Andrew Theen; [email protected]; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen
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