Health officials in South Carolina confirmed two instances of the new South African variant of COVID 19. It spreads fast and is deadlier, they say.
Since these new variants spread fast, more and more Americans are going to be infected. The slight decrease in the number of infections the country had will be back within no time.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the UK variant of COVID 19, known as B117, will be more prevalent in the US by this spring.
New COVID Variants Will Hit US Quite Hard, Warn Experts
According to Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, the US is in for an unpleasant surprise. The new COVID variants are spreading all over the country. The minimal decrease the country had will be gone within no time, he feels. Hospitals are about to be overwhelmed, and the number of deaths are going to skyrocket. This, they say, happens because of new cases of the disease in general and because of the new strains.
Health officials in South Carolina confirmed two new instances of the South African variant of COVID 19. These don’t seem to have any connection and are not due to travel, they say. This is the reason the South African variant is a cause of concern, says Dr. Zeke Emanuel, a member of President Joe Biden’s Covid Advisory Board. This is a cause for concern.
These two patients don’t have any recent travel history. It implies that the South African variant of COVID 19 is already there in the country. The new strains, according to US health officials, are quite problematic. The health officials might not be sure of how widespread is the new variant. The slow tracking pace of the novel coronavirus variants could prove fatal to the US, which is trying to recover from millions of cases.
The dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine says that they have been underperforming in genomic sequencing. That is, they have been picking up the UK, Brazilian, South African variants. Hence, they know they’re in South Carolina but could be elsewhere.
Many public health experts are also worried about an ineffective surveillance program to track the cases. As per the given scenario, the US still lacks a nationwide system to detect and analyze the novel coronavirus, its variants and the process of mutation. The process of genome sequencing is not proportional across States. While California has a record of sequencing about 8,896 genomes, there is nil genome sequencing in North Dakota.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention feel that the UK variant will be more prevalent in the US by spring.
The only way out is to speed up vaccination. If the country could vaccinate at least 3 quarters of the population, it may succeed in slowing the spread of the new variants. But people in the US need to be encouraged to get vaccinated against the diseases as many are still skeptical about the effectiveness of the covid-19 vaccines.
Given below are some insights that will definitely help better understand the situation:
- What is a viral variant? A viral variant is a new version of a virus born out of its genetic mutation. In recent times, numerous versions of COVID 19 have emerged. They spread fast and are more dangerous than their predecessor.
- Why is it a cause for concern? Researchers say that the UK variant of COVID 19 is more dangerous and transmits fast. It also has a higher mortality rate. It is perhaps higher than its known earlier versions. Combine it with the South African and Brazil versions. The situation is about to get worse.