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Health officials in California are investigating whether a local strain of coronavirus could be partly responsible for the spike in infections in the state.
According to the Los Angeles Times, scientists stumbled across the new strain while looking for signs of the highly contagious variant that originated in the UK before traveling to the United States.
During this research, researchers found a new strain, dubbed B.1.426, which is believed to be responsible for the rapid increase in infections during the holiday season in California where more than 3.1 million cases have been reported and 36 790 people died.
The new strain is also highly contagious and spreads faster than any other variant in California.
“ Although the B.1.1.7 strain may play an important role in increasing COVID rates in the UK and Europe, there are still no reports to explain the current spike in cases in Los Angeles and California as a whole which started in early November. 2020, ” researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center wrote in their findings.
Health officials in California are investigating whether a local strain of coronavirus, dubbed B.1.426, could be partly responsible for the spike in infections in the state. The strain has five mutations including CAL.20C (red bubble), which is increasingly present in California
The CAL.20C strain was barely detectable in October, the researchers said, but as of December it made up 24% of 4,500 viral samples.
The graph illustrates the rapid increase in infections between late November and December in California. Rise is blamed on what researchers believe is a local strain of the coronavirus
In California, more than 3.1 million cases have been reported and 36,790 people have died. More than 18,000 people have died in the state in less than three months
“We are reporting the existence of a new strain CAL.20C, the number of which is currently increasing in Southern California,” they added.
The B.1.426 strain was initially discovered in July, but was not seen again until three months later.
According to research, the CAL.20C strain was barely detectable in October, but as of December, it made up 24% of 4,500 viral samples.
In a separate study, researchers found that 25% of viral samples from northern California between late November and December were of the same type, according to the LA Times.
“There was a local variant under our noses,” Dr. Charles Chiu, a laboratory medicine specialist at UC San Francisco, told the newspaper.
Chiu said if they hadn’t been looking for the British variety, they “might have missed it on every level.”
According to the Cedars-Sinai team, the B.1.426 strain has five mutations, including the L452R mutation, which alters the peak protein of the virus. The spike protein is what the virus uses to infiltrate human cells.
The new strain is believed to be partly responsible for the fact that California has nearly doubled its death toll in less than three months.
However, the extent of the role the new strain played in the outbreak is still unclear due to the presence of other factors, including holiday gatherings and people ignoring CDC advice.
In order to determine B.1.426’s role in the surge, investigators are trying to figure out what he is capable of doing.
In a separate study, researchers found that 25% of viral samples from northern California between late November and December were of the same type. Doctor checks patient with COVID-19 in Los Angeles
Researchers told the LA Times they would focus on its transmissibility and its ability to bypass masks, drugs and vaccines, which are used as tools to stop the spread.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is stepping up efforts to track coronavirus mutations to ensure COVID-19 vaccines and treatments stay ahead of newer variants of the disease until collective immunity is reached, the CDC chief said on Sunday. .
Dr Rochelle Walensky spoke about the implications of the rapidly evolving virus during a Fox News interview on Sunday.
More than 25 million Americans have been infected with the virus and there have been more than 418,000 deaths just over a year after America’s first case of COVID-19 was documented.
Walensky, who took over as CDC director last Wednesday, the day President Joe Biden was sworn in, also said the immediate biggest culprit for the slow vaccine delivery was a worsened supply crisis by the inventory confusion inherited from the Trump administration.
“ The fact that we don’t know today, five days after starting this administration and weeks after planning, how much vaccine we have just gives you an idea of the challenges we have left, ” a- she told Fox News on Sunday.
Biden’s transition team was largely excluded from government deliberations on vaccine deployment for weeks after being elected, with then-President Donald Trump refusing to concede defeat and allow the administration inbound to access the information needed to prepare for government.
There have been more than 25 million reported cases of the virus in the United States since the start of the pandemic last year
Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff, said in a separate interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, that a plan to distribute the vaccine, particularly beyond nursing homes and hospitals, “ didn’t really exist when we got to the White House. ”
Walensky said she was confident the government would resolve supply issues soon and would continue to dramatically increase vaccine production and distribution by the end of March.
Uncertainty over immediate supplies, however, will hamper efforts at national and local levels to plan ahead for the number of vaccination sites, staff, and appointments to be set up in the interim, exacerbating shortages. in the short term, she said.
Vaccination has become increasingly critical with the recent emergence of several variants of coronavirus considered to be more transmissible, and in the case of a strain first detected in Britain, possibly more deadly.
“We are now stepping up our monitoring of these and our study of them,” Walensky said, adding that the CDC was working with the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and even the Pentagon.
The goal, she said, is to monitor “the impact of these variants on vaccines, as well as our treatments,” as the virus continues to mutate as it spreads.
Until vaccines can provide “ herd ” immunity among the population, mask-wearing and social distancing remain vital to “ decrease the amount of virus circulating and, therefore, decrease the amount of variations that exist, ” Walensky said.
Although British officials warned on Friday that the so-called British variant of the coronavirus, already detected in at least 20 US states, was associated with a higher level of mortality, scientists said existing vaccines still appeared to be effective against him.
They fear, however, that a more contagious South African variant could reduce the effectiveness of current vaccines and show resistance to three therapeutic antibodies developed to treat COVID-19 patients.
The similarities between the South African variant and one identified in Brazil suggest that the Brazilian variety may also resist antibody treatment.
“ We are in a race against these variants, ” Biden nominated Vivek Murthy, who was nominated by Biden to be the next US surgeon general, said on ABC’s This Week program on Sunday.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist, said in late December he was optimistic the United States could gain sufficient herd immunity from COVID to regain “ some semblance of normalcy ” by now fall 2021.
But Murthy said getting herd immunity before the start of a new school year in September was “ an ambitious goal ”.
Nonetheless, Murthy suggested the government could exceed Biden’s target of administering 100 million vaccines in the first 100 days of his presidency, telling ABC News, “It’s a floor; it is not a ceiling ”.
Fauci, appearing separately on CBS News’ Face the Nation, said the target of 100 million shots includes people who may have received both injections of the two-dose vaccines and those who received only the first. vaccine.
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