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The highly contagious variant of the coronavirus that was first discovered in the UK before being found in several US states has reached New Jersey, NJ Advance Media has learned.
Governor Phil Murphy and the state’s senior health official will announce at Friday’s COVID-19 briefing in Trenton that two cases have been identified in Garden State.
Scientists said the mutation was up to 70% more contagious. But there is no evidence at the moment it is deadlier or more resistant to vaccines. New Jersey joins at least 20 states where the strain has been confirmed.
“We report that two confirmed cases of the COVID-19 variant involving the B.1.1.7 or British variant have been identified in New Jersey,” Department of Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli will announce, according to her prepared remarks.
The first identified case is from an Ocean County man in his 60s and the other is a child traveling to northern New Jersey, Department of Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli will announce.
“(The man) had no travel history or clear exposures to other sick people,” Persichilli said. “The child, who was tested on January 11 in New York, is asymptomatic. The local health department is working to further investigate this case.
The man developed symptoms at the end of December and was tested with a PCR test on January 6. He was never hospitalized and has since recovered.
The governor said as early as late December that it was likely the new strain was already in the state.
“We operate under the assumption that this tension is on us,” Murphy said in a Dec. 28 briefing.
It was discovered in neighboring New York in early January.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracking | Bulletin | Home page
Viruses often acquire small changes of a letter or two in their genetic alphabet just through normal evolution. A slightly modified strain may become the most common in a country or region simply because it is the strain that first settled there or because “super-spreading” events helped it to settle there. ‘root.
A bigger concern is when a virus mutates by altering proteins on its surface to help it escape drugs or the immune system.
But New Jersey health officials said they did not believe the variant would limit the effectiveness of vaccines against the virus.
“There is a good chance the vaccine will continue to work well,” said Ed Lifshitz, medical director of the Communicable Disease Department at the Department of Health, late last month.
“The reason is that for a virus to mutate enough that the antibodies in the vaccine weren’t likely to stop it,” he said, “it would probably mutate enough that it didn’t hang on well. cell in the first place. “
He added, “I know the cell-based vaccine makers are looking at this and certainly we always want to be careful because we never say never when it comes to viruses, but I would expect the vaccine is as effective or nearly as effective against the new variant as the current variants. “
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Matt Arco can be reached at [email protected].
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