COVID-19 variants are here and more transmissible. This is what Whatcom County Health knows
The Whatcom County Health Department is warning residents to maintain their vigilance as variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 circulate in the county and the state.
Public health officials are concerned about a number of variants, which are coronavirus mutations, because they spread more easily among people, can make people sicker and resist antibodies produced via vaccination or during a COVID-19 illness.
The state Department of Health is tracking eight variants and two of them have been found in Whatcom County — B.1.1.7 (known as the U.K. variant) and B.1.427 (a California variant), according to a news release from the Whatcom County Health Department.
“(Department of Health) states that the B.1.1.7 variant is about 50% more transmissible than other strains, and that early studies show it may pose a higher risk of death. It isn’t clear whether infection risk is higher in children relative to other age groups,” the county health department said. ”The other variant detected in Whatcom, B.1.427, one of the ‘California’ variants, which appears to be slightly more contagious, and some antibody treatments are less effective against it,” Whatcom public health officials said.
As for protection afforded by the three vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. — Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna — the county health department said early studies show that they are “effective against the variants.”
Measures such as wearing masks that fit properly, staying away from crowds and frequently washing hands also will help keep the variants from spreading, public health officials said.
How widespread are the variants in Whatcom County?
That’s unknown.
“At this point, variants are detected by both random testing and targeted testing, so simply dividing total variant counts in a state or county by the total number of cases does not provide a valid estimate of the prevalence,” the Whatcom County Health Department said.
Whatcom County has one of the highest numbers of B.1.1.7 variant detections in the state at 27, second only to King’s 212, according to the most recent weekly state report released on Thursday, April 8.
What does that mean?
“We don’t know why there are more B.1.1.7 detections here,” the county health department release states. “But since the samples aren’t all random and aren’t representative of the positive specimens, the only conclusion we can accurately draw is that this variant is present here in Whatcom.”
There also have been three detections of B.1.427 in Whatcom County, according to the report.
How are variants detected?
To do so, a lab looks at the genes in a sample, which is called sequencing.
The state Department of Health sequences 5% to 10% of the positive specimens collected in Washington from samples that are selected randomly or targeted for specific reasons.
The county health department said those reasons include:
▪ An outbreak investigation.
▪ Someone who was possibly reinfected.
▪ A case of vaccine breakthrough, in which a fully vaccinated person tests positive for the virus.
▪ A highly severe case.
▪ A specimen that had a genetic indicator that it might be a B.1.1.7 variant.
More information about variants is on the state Department of Health’s weekly variants report at its COVID-19 Variants page, or on the CDC COVID-19 Variants page.
This story was originally published April 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
