NoVA Patient With No Travel History 1st In State To Test Positive For UK Covid Variant

[appalachiablue]

WUSA9, Jan. 25, 2021.

A variant of the COVID-19 virus first found in the United Kingdom last year has been found in Northern Virginia, health department officials said. The Virginia Department of Health and the Department of General Services Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services (DCLS) announced that the first case of the B.1.1.7 variant was identified in a sample from a resident of Northern Virginia with no reported recent travel history.

“Viruses change all the time, and we expect to see new strains as disease spreads,” State Health Commissioner Dr. M. Norman Oliver said. “We know this variant strain spreads more quickly between people than other strains currently circulating in our communities, but we still have more to learn about whether it causes more severe illness."

VDH did not specify where in Northern Virginia the patient lives. DCLS said they have informed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the variant case. The B.1.1.7 variant was first discovered in the United Kingdom in late 2020 and is more infectious, according to leading health experts.

In the United States, nearly 200 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant have been detected in 23 states as of Jan. 22, 2021. While scientists are working to better understand its impact on vaccine efficacy, early data suggests currently authorized vaccines are effective against the new variant...

Link to tweet

More, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/northern-virginia-patient-with-no-travel-history-first-in-state-to-test-positive-for-uk-coronavirus-variant/ar-BB1d59MR
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- 'Covid: How worrying are the UK, South Africa, and Brazil coronavirus variants?; BBC News, Jan. 25, 2021,
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55659820
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* 'Coronavirus: UK variant 'may be more deadly,' BBC News, Jan. 22, 2021,
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55768627

[captain queeg]

1. I read somewhere that it appears the mutated strain has been showing up in diverse locations

Where there is no evidence of someone bringing it in. So if the mutations are arising independently that’s very bad. Sort of the whole evolutionary thing, the variance is popping up spontaneously it shows that the virus has found a better version to reproduce and spread. Not sure if I worded that correctly but I could see where that’s a bad thing.

[appalachiablue]

2. Scary, this monster is raging. I just posted above a BBC article

from Jan. 22 that states that the UK variant might also have higher mortality, up to 30%. BUT, they aren't certain yet.

[soothsayer]

3. Yeah they waffle on mortality

Maybe they don’t know. But the South African one (or is it Brazilian?) is said to have increased mortality.

[appalachiablue]

4. And we'll find out, sooner than later. It's the young, who haven't

had much of a chance in life yet that I'm most personally concerned about.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. No travel history is meaningless.

Unless the person has been inside locked room since last March, which I somehow doubt, they are still occasionally coming in contact with other people. So many people go maskless, so many wear them wrong (nose hanging out), so many wear loose knit "gaiters" as masks which are worse than ineffective, it goes on. Add to that, a lot of people are asymptomatic and thus all unknowingly can spread the disease. And, as I understand it, only a tiny fraction of one percent of all positive Covid tests get their DNA sequenced, so we really haven't a clue just what is out there.