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A new variant of the COVID-19 virus has infected 46 residents and staff of a Kentucky nursing home, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the first time the strain has been identified in the United States
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The variant, named R.1, is believed to originate in Japan and has infected more than 10,000 people worldwide.
Although R.1 is not considered a variant of concern, according to Dr. William Haseltine, a former professor at Harvard Medical School, it has mutations that can increase “transmission, replication and immune suppression.”
The World Health Organization lists three categories of COVID variants: variants of interest, variants of concern, and high-consequence variants. The delta variant, which is by far the main variant in the United States, is a variant of concern.
Variant R.1 is not on the WHO list of concern or interest.
According to the CDC, many of those infected at the Kentucky facility have been fully vaccinated. The epidemic took place in March.
Twenty-six residents and 20 staff members tested positive for the virus during the outbreak, according to the Kentucky Department for Public Health. Of those who tested positive for the virus, 18 of the residents and four staff members were fully vaccinated.
While fully vaccinated people can contract the virus, according to CDC research, the facility’s vaccinated residents were 87% less likely to show symptoms of the COVID virus compared to those who were not vaccinated.
Among the unvaccinated infected residents of the facility, four were hospitalized. Three residents died, two of whom had not been vaccinated. One of them had previously had a COVID-19 infection.
More than 229 million people have been infected with the COVID-19 virus and more than 4.55 million have died from it, according to Johns Hopkins University.
© 2021 Cox Media Group
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