[ad_1]
One person had recently returned from a domestic trip to a U.S. state with confirmed cases of British strain before falling ill, and the second person determined to have the variant was close contact of the first person, the Department of Health said. health.
An additional case of the British variant is suspected and is under investigation. This person also came into close contact with the person who traveled the country, said Kirby Kruger, director of disease control at the Department of Health.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the British variant is more infectious than other strains of the virus. Other strains of COVID-19 originate from Brazil and South Africa. Scientists estimate that the British variant is between 35% and 45% more transmissible than strains commonly found in the U.S. Some experts say the British variant is more deadly, but the CDC says more research is needed to confirm this discovery.
Even though the variants are genetically different from each other and the strains commonly found in the United States, early studies show that nationally administered COVID-19 vaccines are effective against the variants, according to the CDC.
Determining whether a positive COVID-19 test is the result of a variant is a multi-step process for the North Dakota Public Health Laboratory, Kruger said. The lab processes some of the state’s COVID-19 PCR tests (also called molecular tests, which are different from rapid antigen tests) and examines three “targets” of the virus for each test. If any of the targets appear abnormal, then the lab will analyze it further for genome sequencing. Based on the sequencing, health officials can determine whether the positive COVID-19 test contains the same genetic makeup as the UK variant.
The two people who tested positive for the British strain and the third suspected case have been isolated. But by the time the lab was able to confirm they were positive for the variant through genome sequencing, all three were past their 10 days of isolation and were no longer contagious, Kruger said.
The health department declined to provide further information on the three people, including their age, gender or county of residence.
Kruger said the department did not want to give residents a “false sense of security” because the two confirmed cases and a suspected case with the variant have recovered. “It’s certainly no guarantee that they’re the only ones in North Dakota,” he said.
For tests sent out of state for processing, Kruger said at least one of the labs is sending information of the positive results to North Dakota for further review to see if there are any variants, but this is not the case for all laboratories. This is why there are probably more cases of variants in the state.
Some labs also do their own variant testing, although Kruger said he “doesn’t know how well this is happening.”
Additional strains, like those originating from Brazil and South Africa, cannot be detected in the same way as the British strain. The North Dakota lab runs random sample testing for them by examining 48 random positive tests each week for the strains, Kruger said. Last month, Minnesota confirmed the first case of the Brazilian variant in the country.
Kruger stressed that people should continue to practice social distancing, wearing an appropriate mask and good hygiene to prevent the spread of the virus.
As of Tuesday, there were 1,299 confirmed cases caused by variants of COVID-19 in the United States, with at least 42 states reporting confirmed cases of the British strain, according to the CDC.
Sanford Health now has the ability to test variants.
Identifying variants is not usually important in treating COVID-19, said Dr Avish Nagpal, who heads Sanford Infection Control in Fargo. “It’s more for research and epidemiological purposes,” he said.
Tracking coronavirus mutations is important in predicting whether the pandemic will produce a surge or a dip, and therefore helps vendors prepare for what’s to come, Nagpal said. “It’s kind of a cumbersome test, so it’s not possible to do every sample,” he said, noting that doctors don’t have different treatment options for different variants of the virus. .
The vaccination, although taking place at a gradual pace, is helping to curb the spread of the virus, Nagpal said. Across the state of North Dakota, 14.1% of residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and active cases, which topped 10,000 at last year’s peak, have remained below 800 recently. .
“I think the worst is behind us with this pandemic,” he said.
North Dakota reports 123 new cases
The state health department reported 123 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, including:
No new deaths were reported Wednesday, but at least 1,431 North Dakotans have died from or with COVID-19 throughout the pandemic, according to the Department of Health. More than 61% of the deaths occurred in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
COVID-19-related hospitalizations fell slightly on Wednesday to 43 residents, a significant drop from the more than 350 North Dakotans who were hospitalized at some point in November.
Active cases of COVID-19 in North Dakota increased slightly from Tuesday to 797 residents known to be infected with the virus. This is the lowest number of active cases reported by the state since July.
About 2.2% of the 5,457 residents tested in the last batch tested positive, and the average positivity rate of those tested in the past two weeks is around 2.5%.
As a public service, we’ve opened this article to everyone, regardless of subscription status. If this coverage is important to you, please consider supporting local journalism by clicking the subscribe button in the upper right corner of the home page.
Readers can reach reporter Michelle Griffith, a member of the Report for America Corps, at [email protected]. Journalist Patrick Springer contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link