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Two new reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that new variants of the coronavirus could lead to a rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.
In a report released Wednesday, researchers from the CDC and Minnesota Department of Health detailed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the UK. Previous modeling data suggested this variant, which may be more transmissible, may become the predominant variant in the United States in March, and the CDC has urged people to take action to reduce the spread.
The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report describes cases identified as B.1.1.7 in specimens collected from eight Minnesota residents, aged 15 to 41, from mid-December to mid-January. Five reported Covid-19-like symptoms and three were asymptomatic.
Three of the people had a history of international travel in the two weeks preceding their illness, including two who traveled to West Africa and one who traveled to the Dominican Republic, and three others had traveled to California, including one that tested positive. in California and isolated before returning to Minnesota. None had a travel history to the UK.
The identification of these variants in Minnesota “highlights the importance of mitigation measures such as the use of masks, physical distancing, avoidance of crowds and poorly ventilated interior spaces, isolation of people. with diagnosed COVID-19, quarantining close contacts of people with COVID-19, and adhering to CDC travel guidelines, ”the report says.
On Tuesday, the CDC reported that at least 1,299 cases of coronavirus strains first spotted in the UK, South Africa and Brazil have been reported in the United States. The vast majority of these cases – 1,277 – are variant B.1.1.7 originally detected in the UK. This variant has been found in 41 states and Washington, DC. About a third are in Florida. Nineteen of these 1299 are the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa.
These figures do not represent the total number of such cases circulating in the United States, but only those found by testing positive samples.
In a separate report released by the CDC on Wednesday, Zambian researchers described how the detection of the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa coincided with a rapid increase in cases in Zambia – and this variant could be there. become the dominant strain.
The B.1.351 variant could circulate elsewhere in southern Africa, where many countries are reporting a rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in December and January, according to the report.
“The spread of variant B.1.351 is of public health concern due to the potential for increased transmissibility and, consequently, increased cases, hospitalizations and deaths,” the researchers wrote.
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