‘The devil has arrived’

“An inefficient virus kills its host. A clever virus stays with it.”

—James Lovelock

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

STARTING this week, we’ve been advised to limit our outdoor activity in our community in the Elmhurst after it was confirmed the new strain of the coronavirus, believed to be at least 50 percent more contagious, has arrived in New York.

It’s time to again stock food and avoid going to the grocery stores more than two times in one week, especially in packed buses and subway trains until the new strain of the coronavirus has been neutralized while millions of Americans have started taking the COVID-19 vaccines.

On January 4, New York joined a growing number of states to confirm the presence of a new strain of the coronavirus that triggered a panic in the United Kingdom and other Asian countries, including the Philippines, before the year 2020 ended.

In a press call June 4 afternoon, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that a man in his 60s living in upstate New York has tested positive for the U.K. strain of the coronavirus, known as B.1.1.7.

“The devil has arrived,” said Mr. Yang, who sells flowers and fruits on Whitney Street in Elmhurst, Queens.

Mr. Yang said he will have to limit the operation of his business to “three times a week instead of the usual six days” until the new strain of the coronavirus is nipped in the bud.

 

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It was reported that the Saratoga County man had not traveled recently, leading state officials to believe he got the virus through community spread. 

"He was symptomatic, but he is on the mend and he's doing better," said Cuomo who added “the man is linked to a jewelry store in Saratoga Springs. He advised anyone who had contact with N. Fox Jewelers at 404 Broadway between Dec. 18-24 to get tested immediately.”

State health officials were reportedly already aware of at least three other people sick with COVID-19 connected to the store, but they have yet to be confirmed for the new variant. 

The test samples from each will reportedly be examined for the virus and contract tracing out from the jewelry store is already underway.

At least three other states have recently confirmed the presence of the new virus: Colorado, California and Florida. 

The first U.S. case of the U.K. virus was detected by health officials in Colorado at the end of December in a man in his 20s who also had no recent travel history.

 

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The first detected cases of the variant have been found in some of the county's most populated states amid a busy travel holiday travel season. 

An average of 1.1 million travelers have reportedly flown since Christmas, with the highest numbers reported on Sunday.

The British variant was first detected in September, World Health Organization (WHO) officials previously said. 

Since then, cases have skyrocketed across the U.K., resulting in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision January 4 to impose a national lockdown.

The U.K. variant is reportedly one of two new contagious viral strains that have recently emerged. 

While evidence to date does not indicate either appears to result in more severe infections or higher death rates, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) COVID-19 incident manager, Dr. Henry Walke, reportedly did warn that the heightened ease of transmission could translate to many more cases.

 

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NBC New York has reported that the other variant is one that may have been circulating in South Africa since October and also appears to be more transmissible. 

That variant has reportedly “yet to be detected in the United States”, but health officials overseas warn it could be "more of a problem" than U.K.'s variant. 

Vaccines are expected to work on both.

Identifying the variant requires exhaustive genetic sequencing of individual samples. 

It was reported that Cuomo had already ordered hospitals across the state to begin testing for it. 

As of Wednesday, the state and private labs had analyzed genetic sequencing of more than 4,300 specimens since early spring. 

The governor said 350 were done just last week.

The new SARS-CoV-2 variant first appearing in southern England has a transmission advantage of 0.4 to 0.7 points higher in reproduction number, also known as R0, compared to the initial strain, British researchers found.

According to Medpage Today in a report on January 2, this variant, called 202012/01, has a "substantial transmission advantage," meaning its reproduction numbers could vary from 1.4 to 1.8, according to a multi-disciplinary team based at Imperial College London (ICL), who published their findings on the school's website.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)