The B.1.617 coronavirus variant devastating India right now has arrived in the United States. Experts say it s not likely to cause much harm here because of high vaccination rates and because the health care system is not under stress. But with a virus that has defied expectations and the variant infecting hundreds of thousands of Indians every day, researchers are keeping an eye on it.
Here s what you need to know about the coronavirus variant that originated in India:
What is the B.1.617 variant?
It first appeared in India, where it is believed to have contributed to that nation s devastating second wave of COVID-19. It was dubbed a variant of concern by the World Health Organization last week because of worries it might be more contagious and may more easily evade existing vaccines.
The coronavirus variant that first appeared in India is in the US Here s what to know
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Coronavirus variant that first appeared in India arrives in the US Here s what to know
msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Carl Zimmer and Apoorva Mandavilli, The New York Times Published: 16 May 2021 05:12 PM BdST Updated: 16 May 2021 05:12 PM BdST Coronavirus test samples are loaded into a workstation in a lab at Duke University in Durham, NC, Feb 3, 2021. The country has managed to avoid a variant-fuelled spike in coronavirus cases. The New York Times
On Dec 29, a National Guardsman in Colorado became the first known case in the United States of a contagious new variant of the coronavirus. ); }
The news was unsettling. The variant, called B.1.1.7, had roiled Britain, was beginning to surge in Europe and threatened to do the same in the United States. And although scientists did not know it yet, other mutants were also cropping up around the country. They included variants that had devastated South Africa and Brazil and that seemed to be able to sidestep the immune system, as well as others homegrown in California, Oregon and New York.
In fact, B.1.1.7 seems to have the edge over nearly every variant identified so far. At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said B.1.1.7 made up 72 percent of cases in the country.
“We’re really seeing B.1.1.7 pushing out other variants decisively,” said Emma Hodcroft, an epidemiologist at the University of Bern.
The variants identified in California and New York turned out to be only moderately more contagious than older versions of the virus, and much of their initial success may have been luck. The overall boom in cases last fall amplified what might otherwise have gone undetected.