Use same tools to fight new coronavirus strain, health expert says

UK, South Africa battle fast-spreading new variant of COVID-19

As authorities blame a new, more transmissible variant of coronavirus for the soaring infection rates in the United Kingdom and South Africa, a local infectious disease expert said instead of being afraid, people in the U.S. should keep following the same guidelines to protect themselves.

“This strain is likely in the U.S. already, given the readily available air traffic we have between the UK and the U.S.,” said Dr. Mohammed Reza. “The good thing is we can still do everything we have been preaching to people to prevent from catching this new strain as well.”

That means wearing masks, socially distancing, washing your hands and covering your mouth.

According to Business Insider, the variant has been seen in the UK, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, little information is known about the variant in the States because only about 51,000 of the 17 million U.S. cases have been researched for a new strain or variant.

The CDC says in January 2021, each state will send the health agency at least 10 samples biweekly for sequencing and further characterization, which will help monitor how this virus evolves.

Reza explained that the new strain has good and bad traits.

“This new strain doesn’t mean that the number of people that will catch this new strain that their death rate will go up to five or ten percent -- that’s really good news,” Reza said. “But what this does mean -- it’s 70 percent more transmissible. What that means is a lot more people can get this strain of the virus.”

In Britain, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has surpassed the first peak of the outbreak in the spring.

Hospitals in the worst-hit areas of London and southern England are becoming increasingly overstretched, with ambulances unable to unload patients at some hospitals because all beds are full. A growing number of National Health Service staff are off work because they are sick with the virus or self-isolating.

England had 20,426 coronavirus patients in hospitals as of Monday morning — the last day for which figures are available — compared to its previous high of 18,974 on April 12. Britain has recorded more than 71,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths, the second-highest death toll in Europe after Italy.

A further 414 deaths were reported Tuesday, along with a record 53,135 new cases, although that figure may include a backlog from the Christmas holiday period.

MORE: UK information on coronavirus variant | CDC on implications of new COVID-19 variant

Stevens said the coronavirus vaccines provided hope, and estimated that all vulnerable people in Britain could be inoculated against the virus by late spring 2021. So far, more than 600,000 people in the U.K. have been given a shot of a vaccine developed by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and German firm BioNTech, out of a population of 67 million.

Like Britain, South Africa is battling a variant of COVID-19 that medical experts think is more infectious than the original. The variant has become dominant in many parts of the country, according to experts.

The country surpassed the 1 million mark in confirmed virus cases on Sunday night, when authorities reported that the country’s total cases during the pandemic had reached 1,004,413, including 26,735 deaths.

South Africa’s 7-day rolling average of confirmed daily cases has risen over the past two weeks from 11.18 new cases per 100,000 people on Dec. 13 to 19.87 new cases per 100,000 people on Dec. 27.

The 7-day rolling average of daily deaths in the country has risen over the past two weeks from 0.26 deaths per 100,000 people on Dec. 13 to 0.49 deaths per 100,000 people on Dec. 27.


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