“That was my first thought. Oh my gosh, it’s probably already here. We don’t know that for sure. We haven’t found it yet. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not here,” said Dr. Deborah Fuller, a microbiologist at UW Medicine.
Dr. Fuller believes it’s just a matter of time a new variant of coronavirus shows up in the Washington especially as people defied warnings not to travel over the holidays.
It first appeared in the United Kingdom which prompted travel bans in several countries. Now, health officials in Canada say a person tested positive after returning from the U.K. on Dec. 15. The Vancouver Island resident is now the fourth Canadian to test positive for this new, more contagious variant.
“This particular variant doesn’t necessarily cause an increase in severe disease so that’s good news but it’s just simply a numbers game. If you have more people infected, that’s a concern,” Dr. Fuller added.
The real concern is possibly overwhelming the healthcare system.
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In Southern California, the current epicenter of the crisis, hospitals are already overwhelmed as cases skyrocketed. The LA County Health Department is awaiting genomic testing to determine if the variant has contributed to their December surge.
There’s always the fear that we may be one step behind the virus when it mutates,” said Dr. Suman Radhakrishna of Dignity Health California Hospital Medical Center.
As vaccines are rolled out, Dr. Fuller says the vaccines still appear effective against the new variant.
“That to some extent has to do with where the mutations are occurring and also how vaccines work. They induce antibodies not just in one part of the virus but multiple different parts of the spike protein,” explained Dr. Fuller.
But she urges people to continue to take precautions by continuing to mask up and limit gatherings.
“We have it in our power to keep this under control. We just have to work together to do it,” Dr. Fuller said.
Washington’s Department of Health said it has been and is currently sending positive strains for genotyping. The DOH also said it’s on heightened alert for COVID positive tests in travelers who have recently been in countries where the new variant has been identified.
Cox Media Group
