California: Officials Investigate Individual Coronavirus Mutants Associated with Large-Scale County Outbreaks

California Sunday health officials issued another warning Coronavirus The variant known as L452R has been increasing throughout the state since November last year.

It is premature to say whether a strain is more contagious than other strains, including those that are highly contagious. The first variant identified in the UKDr. Erica Pan, a state epidemiologist in the public health sector, statement.. Nonetheless, authorities are urging the general public to wear masks, avoid socializing with non-family members, and quarantine after exposure.

Like below British variant, coined word B.1.1.7The L452R variant contains several mutations in the surface peplomer that the virus uses to infect cells. Scientists believe that the recently approved vaccine remains effective against the UK variant, but research into the effects of another variant first identified in South Africa is ongoing.

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The mutant strain contains three mutations in the viral surface peplomer. (IStock)

A variant of L452R was first discovered in Denmark early in the pandemic and has since been detected elsewhere, including California. Dr. Charles Chiu, a virologist and professor of laboratory medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told reporters on Sunday’s phone call.Include San Francisco Chronicle.. According to Chiu, the variant was found in about 4% of the sample in December and surged to 25% of the sample by early January.

“The data so far is very preliminary, but it basically raises concerns that the vaccine may have some impact,” Chiu said in an outlet.

According to the State Health Department, the variant has been discovered earlier in California laboratories since November, with increased surveillance, and has been discovered in an outbreak in Santa Clara County.

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The San Francisco Chronicle also reported that Dr. Saracody, a public health officer in Santa Clara County, said the variant had occurred among employees of Kaiser Permanente in San Jose. Made a headline After dozens of incidents and one death were associated with inflatable outfits worn by staff at Christmas. Since then, the outbreak has spread to more than 90 infections among staff.

Cody told outlets that authorities were trying to understand if the variant could explain the magnitude of the hospital outbreak.

“That’s the problem today,” Cody told the outlet.

A Kaiser Permanente spokesperson wrote to Fox News on Monday morning confirming the detection of the L452R mutant in a hospital outbreak.

“We can confirm that the L452R COVID-19 variant was found in some of the results associated with the recent outbreak of COVID-19 in the San Jose Emergency Department,” read the statement in the email. “This information is useful for epidemiological investigations of outbreaks and for advancing important scientific research, but it does not immediately affect patients or employees where health and safety are paramount. COVID- Staff and patients tested positive for 19 The results of this outbreak are now past the transmission period and are asymptomatic. “

Fox News has requested additional comments from the Santa Clara Public Health Service.

“In addition to Santa Clara County, the 452R variant was detected in Humboldt, Lake, Los Angeles, Mono, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, San Francisco, San Bernardino, San Diego, and San Luis Obispo County,” the State Health Department said. .. “It’s too early to know how widespread 452 variants are state-wide, national, or worldwide, as genome sequencing is not equal across states and countries.”

State data Shows a surge in daily new infections in Santa Clara County in late November, reflecting state-wide trends. The state-wide test positive rate has also skyrocketed from about 3% in early November to over 12% today.

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“We’ve found this variant growing in the local community, so we’re prioritizing it for research,” said Chiu, according to the outlet. “Researchers in UCSF and elsewhere will be able to perform important laboratory experiments to determine if the virus is more infectious or will affect vaccine performance.”

news Matches the report It Los Angeles County Over 1 million this weekend COVID-19 (new coronavirus infection) (# If there is no character limit, add parentheses when it first appears Reported the first more contagious UK case since the onset of the pandemic variant..

California, one of the toughest states in the United States to implement blockades, has seen a surge in cases over the past two weeks, with an average of over 41,000 new coronavirus cases occurring each day.

Bradford Betz of Fox News contributed to this article.