Bucks Co. Resident Has UK Coronavirus Strain: Officials
BUCKS COUNTY, PA — The new coronavirus strain has been identified in Bucks County, according to health officials.
In an announcement Friday, Philadelphia health officials said the B.1.1.7 variant of coronavirus has been found in a Bucks County woman.
The woman, who is in her 50s and also a Philadelphia resident, was found to have been infected by the new strain.
Officials said she began experiencing symptoms the last week of December and was briefly hospitalized. Now, she is recovering.
The new strain is thought to be contributing to the rapid increase in cases seen in the United Kingdom since early December.
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This marks the second case of the new strain identified in Pennsylvania, and was found through an investigation by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and the Bucks County Health Department. The first case of the new strain was found in a Dauphin County resident.
The woman's sample was sent to the lab of Frederic Bushman, PhD, chair of Microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, for genetic sequencing.
Health officials asked Bushman's lab to sequence the viral genome from the sample to determine whether it was the UK strain. The sequence contained 22 out of 23 of the diagnostic substitutions characteristic of the UK strain, including all the substitutions in the spike protein hypothesized to make the variant more infectious. Bushman’s lab will continue sequencing new samples from coronavirus patients at Penn Medicine, the health department, and other groups, and be on the lookout for new variants and mutations.
"I don’t think it’s surprising to have found the variant here, as it has already been detected elsewhere in Pennsylvania and in many locations across the U.S.," Bushman said. "All these detections support the idea that the virus is more infectious, and reinforces that we need to take the precautions we know work — wear masks, social distance, don’t go to crowded places, and get a COVID-19 vaccine when it is available to you.”
Philadelphia and Bucks's health departments are collaborating on contact tracing efforts to identify, inform, and monitor anyone who was in close contact with this individual.
Dr. David Damsker, director of the Bucks County Health Department, said it is not unusual for a virus to change and mutate.
"We are not overly concerned about this development because all available evidence shows that the existing vaccines are effective against this variant," Damsker said. "So long as that continues to be the case, we will treat this variant the same as our other cases."
"While it is still not proven that the B.1.1.7 variant is more transmissible than other variants of the COVID-19 coronavirus, we are concerned that it is present in Philadelphia," Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said. "Everyone in the area should take this information as a reminder to be even more consistent in wearing masks and keeping distance from others.”
The CDC reports more research about this new variant is ongoing, but available data seems to show that it is more easily transmitted between people than the current, dominant strain of coronavirus in the United States. Cases have been reported in several states. It is believed that this strain of the virus is susceptible to the coronavirus vaccine.
This article originally appeared on the Newtown Patch
