Fears super-Covid strain will trigger another spring wave as US suffers record daily death toll
A SUPER-Covid strain has sparked fears that another spring wave will be triggered as the United States has suffered a record daily death toll. Panic has unfolded as Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced on Tuesday that the first case of a highly contagious mutant Covid-19 strain has been confirmed in the US. As the contagious […]
A SUPER-Covid strain has sparked fears that another spring wave will be triggered as the United States has suffered a record daily death toll.
Panic has unfolded as Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced on Tuesday that the first case of a highly contagious mutant Covid-19 strain has been confirmed in the US.
As the contagious virus somehow made its way to America, the nation saw its highest daily death toll since the beginning of the pandemic.
According to Johns Hopkins University, at least 3,725 Americans passed away from Covid on Tuesday.
Scientist Trevor Bedford – who studies the spread of coronavirus at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center – has warned that the super-Covid strain made its way into the US through visitors from the UK.
Bedford said: “Now I’m worried there will be another spring wave due to the variant.
“It’s a race with the vaccine, but now the virus has just gotten a little bit faster.”
In total, more than 340,004 people have died from the coronavirus across the US, John Hopkins University revealed.
The US has recorded at least 19,551,716 confirmed coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.
An official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has since warned hospitals may soon feel the added stress from the new Covid strain, CNBC reported on Wednesday.
Dr Henry Walk told the news outlet: “Because the variants spread more rapidly, they could lead to more cases and put even more strain on our already heavily burdened health-care systems.”
Colorado Gov Polis wrote to Twitter on Tuesday: “Today we discovered Colorado’s first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in the UK.
“The health and safety of Coloradans is our top priority and we will monitor this case, as well as all COVID-19 indicators, very closely.”
Alongside the tweet was an announcement of the new discovery – which revealed the infected individual is a man in his 20s.
An investigation is now underway by public health officials – and contact tracing interviews will be conducted to find other potential cases.
In addition to the strain found in Colorado, which was first found in the UK, another strain may also be making its way across the US.
According to CDC officials, the separate Covid strain was first discovered in South Africa.
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However, Professor Andrew Pollard – the lead professor behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that was approved in the UK – doesn’t seem to worried.
According to Pollard, vaccines could be “tweaked” to deal with new variants of the virus.
He also said there is no evidence so far to suggest that the vaccines won’t work against a new mutation.