A highly transmissible mutated version of the coronavirus first detected in South Africa has reached the United States, with the first two cases confirmed in South Carolina.
“The arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 variant in our state is an important reminder to all South Carolinians that the fight against this deadly virus is far from over,” said Dr. Brannon Traxler, the public health director of the state’s health department.
The two cases appear unrelated, and neither patient had a history of travel, indicating that the mutated virus has begun spreading from person to person. The B.1.351 variant, which a network of labs in South Africa identified in December, has already been detected in at least 29 countries.
“At this time, we have no evidence that infections by this variant cause more severe disease,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement to reporters. “Like the U.K. and Brazilian variants, preliminary data suggests this variant may spread more easily and quickly than other variants.”
The arrival of the variant, Traxler said, is a reminder that “every one of us must recommit to the fight by recognizing that we are all on the front lines now. We are all in this together.”
“We know that viruses mutate to live and live to mutate,” he said. “That’s why it’s critical that we all continue to do our part by taking small actions that make a big difference.”
Researchers have yet to conclude that the vaccines currently in distribution across the U.S., made by Pfizer and Moderna, will protect against this new strain from South Africa, as well as another highly transmissible strain from the United Kingdom. However, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert and the chief medical adviser to President Biden, assured reporters last week that “from the reports we have, as of today, it appears that the vaccines will still be effective against them.”
Last week, Fauci said that “it does not appear at all that the South African strain is in the United States. … We must be honest and say that the level of comprehensive sequence surveillance thus far is not at the level that we would have liked, so we’re going to be looking very, very carefully for it.”
