• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Coronavirus Facts and Information thread:

Stevicus

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
U.K. variant most dominant strain of COVID-19 in U.S., CDC says - UPI.com

April 7 (UPI) -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Wednesday that the so-called U.K. variant of the novel coronavirus has become the most dominant strain of the virus in the United States.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced the findings during a COVID-19 Response Team update.
Click to expand...

"Based on our most recent estimates from CDC surveillance, the B.1.1.7. variant is now the most common lineage circulating in the United States," she said.

Scientists have said the variant, first identified in Kent, England, in September, is more contagious and up to 100% more deadly than the original strains of the virus. In January, U.S. public health officials predicted it would become the most dominant strain of COVID-19 in the United States by the spring.
Click to expand...
 
Stevicus

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
As Variants Have Spread, Progress Against the Virus in U.S. Has Stalled

United States coronavirus cases have increased again after hitting a low point late last month, and some of the states driving the upward trend have also been hit hardest by variants, according to an analysis of data from Helix, a lab testing company.

The country’s vaccine rollout has sped up since the first doses were administered in December, recently reaching a rolling average of more than three million doses per day. And new U.S. cases trended steeply downward in the first quarter of the year, falling by almost 80 percent from mid-January through the end of March.

But during that period, states also rolled back virus control measures, and now mobility data shows a rise in people socializing and traveling. Amid all this, more-contagious variants have been gaining a foothold, and new cases are almost 20 percent higher than they were at the lowest point in March.

“It is a pretty complex situation, because behavior is changing, but you’ve also got this change in the virus itself at the same time,” said Emily Martin, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Cases are up in states with strong variant presence.
Michigan has seen the sharpest rise in cases in the last few weeks. B.1.1.7 — the more transmissible and more deadly variant of the coronavirus that was first discovered in the United Kingdom — may now make up around 70 percent of all of the state’s new cases, according to the Helix data.
Click to expand...

Michigan has seen the sharpest rise in the B.1.1.7 variant of the virus, which was first discovered in the UK. The new variant makes up around 70% of the new cases.

The article states that the vaccines are very effective against the B.1.1.7 variant, but less than 20% of the US population has been fully vaccinated as of April 5.

There are also other regional variants, such as the B.1.526, which was first discovered in New York City.

The vaccines authorized in the United States are very effective against the B.1.1.7 variant and will significantly slow virus spread once a large share of the population is vaccinated. Some experts estimate 70 to 90 percent of the population would need to acquire resistance before transmission would substantially slow. As of April 5, less than 20 percent of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated against the virus.

Regional variants have also fueled spikes.
Several states in the Northeast also have among the country’s worst outbreaks now. Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, among others, are all experiencing marked rises in case counts, and labs have identified both the B.1.1.7 variant and large shares of another variant, B.1.526.

The B.1.526 variant, which first appeared in New York City in samples from November, appears in two forms: one with a mutation that may help the virus evade antibodies and another that may help it bind more tightly to human cells.

The rapid spread of the B.1.526 variant, which made up more than 40 percent of sequenced cases in New York City as of mid-March, has prompted officials to say they believe it also could be a more infectious strain, though they say it is too early to tell whether it results in a more severe illness.

There is not enough genomic sequencing, the resource-intensive process required to discover that a case has been caused by a variant, to be certain how exactly much B.1.526 is spreading in the Northeast, but the available data indicates it is likely widespread.
Click to expand...


Another variant has been hitting California, the B.1.427/B.1.429.

The outbreak in the Northeast is currently much worse than it is in California, but California faces a variant of its own that makes up a large share of cases.

Studies have indicated the variant first discovered in California, B.1.427/B.1.429, may also be more transmissible than earlier forms of the virus, but it does not appear to spread as quickly as B.1.1.7. It was discovered in more than half of samples tested in Los Angeles in mid-January, suggesting that it may have helped fuel the state’s enormous winter surge, which hit Southern California hardest.
Click to expand...

The vaccine rollout continues to speed up, and recent studies confirm that vaccines are effective against the coronavirus in the real world, giving experts hope that an end may be in sight. But with increased transmission, they say, comes a renewed need for caution in the immediate term.

“I think we’ve got to hang on just a little bit longer, being conservative and getting more people vaccinated,” Dr. Martin said. “I’d hate to see us having another hospital surge when we’re getting so close to being done with this. I’m definitely worried about it.”
Click to expand...

variants-cases-spread-promo-1617667420406-videoSixteenByNineJumbo1600.jpg
 
Secret Chief

Secret Chief

nirvana is samsara
UK

Everyone over 50 and everyone in a high risk group has been offered at least the first dose.

Moderna today joins Pfizer and AZ Oxford as available vaccines.

32 million people have received their first jab.

There are 21 million remaining to be offered.
 
Quagmire

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
Coronavirus Cases:
138,826,004
view by country

Deaths:
2,985,425

Recovered:
111,608,393
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top