A new study has found that the new variant of COVID-19 called B.1.1.7, first discovered in the United Kingdom, has been spreading at an alarming rate in the United States. – doubles every 10 days or so – and is thought to be the leading strain of the virus in the country by March.
A team of researchers led by researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in partnership with Helix, an American genomics company, studied nearly half a million positive COVID-19 samples collected by Helix across the U.S. since summer 2020 .The study examined frequency and growth. variant dynamics B.1.1.7 and found that the mutated virus was spreading across the US at an exponential rate.
Instead of following each individual sample, the team was able to identify a specific anomaly that was a “reliable agent” for B.1.1.7. They also analyzed the full genetic sequencing, a more time-consuming process, for 212 samples.
They found that the B.1.1.7 variant was introduced at several points into the US in November 2020, and found that the variant, with a 40% higher transmission, to 70%, doubling its infection numbers almost every 10 days. They therefore estimated that the variant, which accounted for about 2% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. in January, would become mainstream circulating around the country by March.
“Our study shows that the U.S. is on a similar path to other countries where B.1.1.7 quickly became a major variant of SARS-CoV-2, requiring immediate action to reduce morbidity and mortality COVID-19, “the study warned. , published on the medRvix online preprint scientific papers archive.
“I urge everyone to keep your guard up,” said Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at Monday’s preparatory meeting. is a major threat and a potential setback for the recent positive trends. “
Conventional vaccines remain effective against the variant, while the use of masks significantly reduces the transmission. “The two things we can do are a) make sure we follow public health measures … and b) get as many people vaccinated, as soon as we can,” said Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor on the pandemic.
The U.S. has had the largest uprising in the world, with more than 27 million confirmed cases and 460,000 deaths, but its last wave was around January 8 and diseases have been reported. falling since then. The authors of the study called on the US to build their COVID-19 genomic analysis system.
In the UK, B.1.1.7 was first detected in September 2020 when it was named Variant of Concern (VOC) 202012/01, and by December it had crossed other layers to become main type of COVID-19 in the country. Since then, the mutated strain has spread across at least 60 countries around the world including many European countries such as Portugal and Ireland, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Ireland had gone out of control by the end of 2020, but in January B.1.1.7 a wave there encouraged that it is now overcoming it.