CDC director says we should treat every case of COVID-19 as if it were a variant of the virus

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a bicycle parked on the side of a building: A nurse enters a tent for coronavirus patients set up at University Medical Center on October 30, 2020 in El Paso, Texas. Cengiz Yar / Getty Images


© Cengiz Yar / Getty Images
A nurse enters a tent for coronavirus patients set up at the University Medical Center on October 30, 2020 in El Paso, Texas. Cengiz Yar / Getty Images

  • New CDC director warns that we must treat every case of COVID-19 as if it were a variant, as more and more cases of highly contagious variants are discovered in the United States.
  • There have been 379 confirmed cases of the variant first discovered in the UK.
  • Some vaccines appeared to be less effective against a variant first detected in South Africa.
  • Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

As cases of coronavirus variants are reported in the United States, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says we need to treat each case of COVID-19 as if it were a variant.

Dr Rochelle Walensky said officials were stepping up tracking for variants, but urged Americans to continue wearing masks and keeping social distancing, during a COVID-19 briefing on Friday.

“By the time someone has symptoms, takes a test, gets a positive result and we get the streak, our opportunity to do real case controls and contact tracing has largely passed,” Walensky said. . “We should treat each case as if it were a variant during this pandemic at this time.”

Walensky said 379 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant which was first detected in the UK have now been confirmed in 29 states.

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a person holding a cell phone: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has turned the world upside down in ways we never could have imagined. Even now, a year later, the virus is still changing and continues to confuse and challenge experts. Currently, new strains of the virus have emerged in different pockets around the world, some of the most worrying coming from the UK, South Africa and Brazil. They are around 50% more transmissible than the current dominant strain, and in some cases affect the effectiveness of treatments and vaccines. Now, researchers have just discovered another alarming new development of COVID: Patients are infected with two different strains of the virus at the same time. Read on to learn more about the new study's results and what it means for the future of the pandemic, and for more coronavirus concerns, find out why Moderna's chief medical officer just gave this update. overwhelming.

It comes as Dr Anthony Fauci warns that some vaccines are less effective against a variant first discovered in South Africa.

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Johnson & Johnson said its vaccine was 66% effective in preventing moderate and severe cases of COVID-19, but was less effective in trials in South Africa, where a specific variant has spread. Novavax also said its vaccine was less effective against this variant of the coronavirus.

South Carolina health officials on Thursday said they had detected two cases involving the South African variant this week.

Other more contagious variants have also been reported in the United States. On Monday, Minnesota health officials said they had discovered the first known case of a variant first discovered in Brazil.

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