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As Alameda County saw its first known cases of the highly contagious variant of the coronavirus spreading across the UK, the fight to find enough doses of the vaccine continued – and a senior health official warned that another surge may be on the horizon.
Alameda County has identified six confirmed or suspected cases of the UK variant, which health officials say is around 50% more infectious and may also be more likely to cause death, although further study of this aspect is necessary.
The variant, known as B.1.1.7, has been identified in other parts of the state, mainly in southern California – with 127 cases found in California to date, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No other Bay Area county has announced a case so far, but officials believe the variant is much more widespread than official figures suggest, as only a tiny fraction of coronavirus infections are sequenced genomically.
“We have only identified a small number,” said Dr Benjamin Pinsky, medical director of the clinical virology laboratory at Stanford University, which works on coronavirus sequencing and has found cases in the region of the bay of both the British variant and another disturbing variant that has spread widely in Brazil. “But we need to be vigilant and watch for these variants to know when they are becoming more common.”
California Health Secretary Dr Mark Ghaly said on Tuesday that the state is also seeing the rapid spread of two local variants. There are 767 confirmed cases of the mutant known as B.1.429 and 290 infections linked to the B.1.427 variant, the condition shows. What their properties – in other words, whether they are more infectious and how they interact with vaccines – is unclear.
The state has warned residents to stay alert as the Lunar New Year and the Super Bowl approach – two traditional gathering times for friends and family.
“Our case rates are going down, but they’re not low,” Ghaly said. He added: “The chance of a new outbreak in California is real.”
Meanwhile, the frantic effort to vaccinate as many Californians as possible continued.
San Francisco opened its second neighborhood vaccination site in the Bayview District on Tuesday, offering daily walk-in injections to neighborhood residents aged 65 and over. Another high-volume site will soon open at the Moscone Center.
Vaccine supply problems have triggered Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara County, which has had to cancel around 5,250 immunization appointments scheduled for last week and this week after the health system said it did not had not received enough doses.
The Santa Clara Medical Center has canceled around 750 appointments for people aged 75 and over scheduled for Friday through Sunday; and 4,500 others for people 65 and over, scheduled until Friday.
“We understand the frustration this causes and we continue to do all we can to increase vaccine supply, in partnership with county, state and federal governments,” Kaiser said in a statement.
The appointments were made based on projections based on previous vaccine deliveries and state and county advice, according to hospital officials.
Appointments for those 75 and over will be rescheduled as soon as possible, Kaiser said, with the rest to come “when supplies are available.” He added that he first needed “a significant increase in vaccine supply to program this population.”
The White House said on Tuesday that the federal supply of coronavirus vaccines to states will increase another 5% over the next three weeks to 10.5 million doses.
One hundred CVS pharmacies in California will offer the coronavirus vaccination to eligible people according to state guidelines starting February 11, CVS Health announced Tuesday. The California program is part of an 11-state launch by the chain, which eventually hopes to administer 20 to 25 million shots per month nationwide.
State health officials predict significant relief from pressure from COVID-19 patients on hospital intensive care units over the next month.
“Southern California – the hardest hit part of our state that was well below zero in its intensive care capacity – we now see that we are projecting 43.7% intensive care capacity four weeks later. ”Ghaly said. The capacity of intensive care units in the Bay Area, which has avoided the 0% extended availability status that plagues Southern California for many weeks, will increase to 33.3% capacity by March 1, according to state projections.
The Bay Area remains in the most restrictive purple level in California’s reopening plan.
All but four counties in the state – Trinity, Alpine, Mariposa, and Sierra – remained in the purple category. The counties of Trinidad and the Alps moved this week from the red level – the second most restrictive – to the orange category, or moderate.
Chronicle editors Erin Allday, Michael Williams and Rita Beamish contributed to this story.
Aidin Vaziri is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected]
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