Colorado case of COVID-19 variant is 'unlikely to be the first' in US, governor says

Grace Hauck, USA TODAY

One day after confirming the first known U.S. case of a new coronavirus strain that was first identified in the United Kingdom, Colorado officials said contact tracing was underway to determine who else may have been exposed to the variant.

"We don’t yet have a good idea of how prevalent it is either nationally or within our state," Gov. Jared Polis said. "This is unlikely to be the first person with the variant here in the United States. There are likely many, particularly in the northeastern United States."

The Colorado state laboratory confirmed the case and notified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the governor's office said in a statement Tuesday. The patient is a man in his 20s who is recovering in isolation in Elbert County, outside Denver. He works in the town of Simla and was experiencing mild symptoms, Polis said. He has no travel history and no close contacts.

Scientists in the United Kingdom believe the variant strain, known as B117, is more contagious than previously identified strains but not more severe. According to models, it has an increased transmission rate of 70% compared with other variants in the U.K.

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The strain was first spotted in September in southeastern England and accounted for a quarter of cases in London by November. By the week of Dec. 9, it was responsible for 60% of cases in the city.

As Britain cheered the emergency authorization of the coronavirus vaccine by Oxford University and AstraZeneca Wednesday, the government extended its highest tier of restrictions to three-quarters of England’s population, beyond London and the southeast to large swaths of central, northern and southwest England. Dozens of nations have banned travel from the U.K.

"Our strategy throughout has been to suppress the virus until a vaccine can make us safe. Suppressing the virus has got a whole lot harder because of the new variant – and we must take more action today," Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a speech to the House of Commons Wednesday. "Unfortunately, this new variant is now spreading across most of England and cases are doubling fast."

The strain has also been identified in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, India, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. South Africa has identified a strain similar to the one first identified in the U.K., but it emerged independently of the U.K. strain and is not related to it, according to the CDC.

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The Colorado lab identified the variant through analysis of testing samples, initially spotting a tell-tale sign of the variant in a PCR test. Scientists then sequenced the viral genome and found eight mutations specific to the spike protein gene associated with this variant, according to the governor's office.

The CDC said last week that the strain could already be in the country without detection. As of Dec. 22, viruses had only been sequenced from about 51,000 of 17 million U.S. cases, the agency said.

"Ongoing travel between the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the high prevalence of this variant among current UK infections, increase the likelihood of importation," the CDC said.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, mutates regularly and acquires about one new mutation in its genome every two weeks, according to the CDC. This particular variant has several mutations that affect the so-called "spiked protein" on the virus surface that attaches to human cells.

Researchers believe current COVID-19 vaccines will likely protect against the new variant, but data is needed. The virus would "likely need to accumulate multiple mutations in the spike protein to evade immunity induced by vaccines or by natural infection," according to the CDC.

Earlier this month, Vivek Murthy, President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for surgeon general, urged Americans not to let concerns over the variant shake their faith in vaccination. "There’s no reason to believe that the vaccines that have been developed will not be effective against this virus as well," Murthy said on NBC’s "Meet the Press."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus variant in Colorado 'unlikely' to be the first case in US

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