The CDC director says a new variant of COVID-19 could slow progress in the United States

Angels — Over the past few weeks, coronavirus cases and deaths have continued to decline as efforts to vaccinate the American population have increased. However, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasized on Friday that the pandemic trajectory remains a concern as a new variant of COVID-19 may have stagnated progress in defeating the virus. did.

CDC director Rochelle Warrensky said in a briefing at the White House Coronavirus Task Force on Friday, “The latest data show that these declines may have stagnated and remain flat at very high numbers. It suggests that it could be. “

“We at the CDC consider this to be very concerned about orbital changes,” Walensky continued. “In fact, the number of cases has increased over the past three days compared to the previous week.”

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Walensky said deaths tended to be more variable than cases and hospitalizations, but said the 7-day average for new daily cases was higher than the average for the first 7 days of the week.

“We are closely monitoring these data about the data to see where we are going in the next few days,” Warensky said. “But it’s important to know where we are in the pandemic. Things are sparse. Now is the time to relax the restrictions.”

Cases and hospitalizations have declined significantly in the United States over the past six weeks, but according to Warensky, the decline follows the pinnacle of a pandemic.

As of Friday, 77,291 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the United States, with a cumulative total of over 28.4 million. Data from Johns Hopkins University.. The virus has killed more than 508,000 Americans.

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“So I want to clarify. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths all remain very high, and recent pandemic changes must be taken very seriously,” Warensky said.

According to Walensky, the CDC “warned” a new variant of the United States, with other variants including the B.1.1.7 variant, which is twice as infectious as the original strain of coronavirus, in mid-March. The predominant variant of the virus that is prevalent in the country by.

B.1.1.7 currently accounts for about 10% of cases in the United States, with prevalence even higher in certain parts of the country, Walensky said.

“We may end up with a virus, but obviously the virus doesn’t end with us,” Warensky said.

New variants detected in California and New York

New variants of the coronavirus have been detected in both California and New York, and are spreading rapidly, researchers say. This raises concerns that emerging, and perhaps more contagious, strains may impede the country’s recent tendency to decline cases.

A variant of New York City, called B.1.526, was first detected in late November 2020. By mid-February, it appeared in approximately 25% of the sequenced coronavirus genome and was entered into a database shared by researchers.

Meanwhile, a new coronavirus variant called CAL.20C was also detected in Southern California and is expanding rapidly amid a surge in local infections, according to a study released on February 11. JAMA Medical journal.

This subspecies was first detected in July 2020 in one of the 1,247 samples in Los Angeles County. Researchers said it wasn’t detected again in Southern California until October. Since then, the prevalence of CAL.20C has increased across the state, accounting for 35% of all samples collected in late January, especially 44% of all samples collected from Southern California counties. I am.

Primary variants emerged in the fall of 2020

Some of the major variants emerged in the fall of 2020, complicating global efforts to combat the coronavirus and contributing to its rapid spread in major metropolitan areas, including London and Los Angeles.

Various coronavirus strains are distributed around the world, but health professionals are mainly three According to experts, variants in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil are also highly contagious.

In the United Kingdom, SARS-CoV-2 variants have emerged with an unusually large number of mutations.

Since then, this variant has been detected and reported in many countries, including the United States and Canada, with cases reported in the following states: California, Colorado And Florida..

On the other hand, in South Africa, another subspecies emerged independently of B.1.1.7.

On December 18, South Africa announced that mutations were detected in three states: Eastern Cape, West Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal.

According to the CDC, the South African subspecies shares some mutations with the British subspecies B.1.1.7.

In Brazil, a variant of SARS-CoV-2 (known as P.1) has emerged and a four-person trip from Brazil tested during regular screening at Haneda Airport, a suburb of Tokyo, Japan. Identified by person.

According to the CDC, the Brazilian variant has 17 unique mutations, including three in the receptor-binding domain of peplomer.

The virus continues to mutate

The virus infects humans and can mutate when making a copy of itself. Some mutations are harmful to the virus and can kill the virus. Others can offer benefits and help it spread.

“Not all mutations are made the same,” said Mary Petrone, who studies infectious diseases at Yale University. “The virus will be lucky many times.”

Monitoring variants is important because it can reduce the effectiveness of vaccines and treatments and change the way people are infected.

Early mutations in the pandemic fueled the spread of the virus around the world, but haven’t changed significantly since then-until recently, said Ohio State University biologist Daniel Jones.

Pharmaceutical companies fine-tune COVID-19 vaccine to fight mutants

The first-generation COVID-19 vaccine appears to be effective against today’s variants, but manufacturers have already taken steps to fine-tune the shots as needed.And Experts say The mRNA vaccine currently used by Pfizer and Moderna in the United States can be easily updated.

Moderna and Pfizer have announced that they are ready to fine-tune the COVID-19 vaccine and are preparing for potential booster immunization to combat the mutant coronavirus mutants that are prevalent worldwide. ..

Kelly Haze contributed to this story.