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The more contagious variant of COVID-19 first identified in South Africa was confirmed in Colorado for the first time, with three cases detected in a Chaffee County jail experiencing its third coronavirus outbreak, announced Sunday evening public health officials.
Two staff at the Buena Vista Correctional Complex and one of the jail inmates tested positive for variant B.1.351, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said.
Prior to its discovery in Colorado, 81 cases of the South African variant had been confirmed in 20 jurisdictions across the United States, including California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, New York and Maine, according to the Centers. for Disease Control and Prevention.
The South African variant was first detected in this country in October, and like the B.1.1.7 strain first identified in the UK, it is believed to spread more easily and faster than other versions of COVID-19, according to the CDC.
The first confirmed cases of variant B.1.1.7 in the United States were detected in Colorado at the end of December.
Since then, state officials have confirmed 190 cases of what they call “variants of concern,” which include B.1.1.7 and other strains of COVID-19 “which can spread more easily, cause more serious illness, reduce the effectiveness of treatments or vaccines. , or (are) more difficult to detect with current tests. “
That’s a small number compared to the total of 436,602 coronavirus cases detected in the state over the past year, but public health officials fear highly contagious strains could take off before enough of the disease. population is inoculated against the virus – or that certain variants may prove more of it. resistant to new vaccines.
The discovery of the South African strain in Colorado came after all three samples from Buena Vista prison were randomly selected for gene sequencing as part of the state’s ongoing surveillance analysis for variants. .
Officials did not release any information about the health status of the three people.
The state’s health department now plans to sequence all positive COVID-19 specimens from the prison to look for variants, the agency said in a press release. Anyone exposed to the prison will be quarantined for 14 days, health officials said.
Buena Vista prison first experienced an outbreak of COVID-19 last July, with 197 inmates infected and 16 staff testing positive, according to state health department records. A second outbreak followed in October, with 314 inmates testing positive and 60 staff members infected.
One inmate died in this second outbreak, state records show.
The prison’s current outbreak – its third – was declared on February 24 and included three infections of inmates and 11 cases of staff on Wednesday.
Due to epidemic conditions, detainees at Buena Vista were tested for COVID-19 every week from Oct. 19 to Feb. 3, shortly before the second outbreak was declared over, according to health officials from the state. Weekly testing resumed on February 22, around the time of the onset of the current outbreak.
Department of Corrections staff are tested weekly using the more accurate PCR tests and, since November, daily with the BinaxNOW COVID-19 rapid antigen tests, according to state health officials.
Inmates undergo PCR testing when they show symptoms, are exposed to someone who has tested positive, or when surveillance tests are performed during outbreaks.
On Monday, a team from the state health department will travel to Buena Vista prison to perform PCR tests and host a vaccination clinic for inmates and staff, officials said. A vaccination clinic is scheduled for later in the week for family members and close staff contacts as well.
To date, only 664 of the more than 30,000 inmates in the Colorado Corrections Department have been vaccinated because, despite their high risk situation, they could only be vaccinated due to their advanced age or, more recently, to their health problems. In its initial draft of the vaccination plan, the state health department had given prisoners a higher priority, but they were subsequently dismissed from their posts.
But Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment policy allows flexibility to deviate from the state’s vaccine prioritization “for the emerging risk of rapid spread of COVID-19 (e.g., transmission of variants), ”the agency said when announcing Buena Vista’s vaccination plans.
Colorado prisons have been hit particularly hard by COVID-19 over the past year, with 8,693 inmates testing positive statewide and 29 prisoner deaths, according to data from the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Many of the state’s largest coronavirus outbreaks during the pandemic have been in penal institutions, prisons, detention centers and prisons representing 11 of Colorado’s current 15 largest epidemics.
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