A new potentially more contagious coronavirus strain of concern in Europe has been found in the Big Bear, bringing the total number of such cases in California to at least six, officials announced Friday.
The type was found in two members of the same household tested for the virus on Dec. 20, the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health said in a news release. One of them had contact with a passenger who returned from Britain on 11 December and three days later he showed Covid-19 symptoms, officials said.
A passenger living in the Big Bear area also had a variant that is still under investigation to determine if others were infected, county officials said Saturday. Four other cases were identified in San Diego County this week.
Passengers are now required by the United States to provide proof of a negative coronavirus test before flying from the UK, but the rule did not apply until Monday.
It was announced before Christmas in England after the news of the tension known as 1.1.7 and then in the US in Colorado. Was first confirmed on Tuesday. A case has also been reported in Florida.
Experts say there is no evidence that this type is fatal, causes more serious illness or renders existing vaccines ineffective.
However, a specific set of genetic mutations appears to improve the virus’s ability to transmit from one person to another and to sneeze the immune system’s defenses, fearing it could increase more rapidly in new cases as a fragrant vaccination rollout conflict. To continue and many hospitals are already overflowing with Covid-19 patients.
San Bernardino County Health Officer Dr. “Based on the information currently available, we know that the B1.1.7 variant strain spreads more easily and quickly,” Michael Sequeira said in a statement. “Therefore, adherence to all safe practices is more important than ever.”
Scientists are not yet convinced that the U.S. How prevalent the variant is in, but mounting evidence that it is already spreading in some communities.
Officials said the first U.S. In the case, the Colorado National Guardsman, who was sent to help the Shimla Nursing Home deal break out in the 20s, did not travel outside the country. Another guard member was also suspected of being a variable, officials said.
On Wednesday, officials announced that in California, a 30-year-old man from San Diego County who had no recent travel history was the first to be identified in this way. Officials said tests were pending to determine if the man had a different form of one of the man’s domestic contacts after he was admitted to the hospital in Covid-119.
The next day, county public health officials said they believe the stress is widespread in the area: whole genome sequencing has confirmed three more cases in men who have not had contact with each other.
The men – two in their 40s and one in their 50s – were also unable to communicate with previously confirmed cases. Two of them had not traveled the country; A full interview with the third is pending, officials said.
In San Diego County: La Mesa, Mission Beach, Otai Mesa and communities spread across the Carmel Mountain area, four cases of the variable have been found, indicating that the area has already been set on foot, officials said.
The county’s public health officer, Dr. “We believe that many more cases of B1.1.7 stress will be confirmed in the coming days and weeks,” Eric MacDonald said in a statement.
Officials have yet to find evidence that Los Angeles County is the most populous county in the state and the hardest hit by the virus. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t turn around, Public Health Director Barbara Farre warned.
“We have thousands and thousands of people being tested every day, and we’re only able to sample a small number of those test results and sequence the genes,” Ferrer said during a briefing earlier this week.
On Thursday, Florida became the third state to announce that it had identified a variant in a 20-year-old Martin County man who had not traveled recently.
Experts say the development is no surprise: the more the virus replicates, the more it changes. Most changes have no effect on how the virus works, but sometimes, they can change how the virus behaves.
In this case, the changes could make the virus 70% more transmissible, encouraging the rapid spread of new cases in London and the south of England, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last month as he announced new lockdown measures for most of the country. The discovery also prompted other countries to ban or ban travel from Britain.
However some scientists suspect that genetic changes in stress make it more contagious and say that more studies are needed to determine other factors such as population density, different rates of wearing masks and different rates of compliance with social distance rules. Explain the rapid spread of variants in England.
Times staff writers Melissa Haley, Rong-Gong Lin II and Luke Money contributed to this report.
