COVID variant outbreaks in Santa Clara County including Kaiser San Jose
COVID variant outbreaks in Santa Clara County including Kaiser San Jose
The California Department of Public Health is seeing increasing numbers of a new Covid-19 variant throughout the state, including in the Bay Area. It is different than the strain detected in the United Kingdom. The new variant has been tied to several large outbreaks in Santa Clara County including one at Kaiser in San Jose. Azenith Smith reports
SAN JOSE, Calif. - The California Department of Public Health is seeing increasing numbers of a new Covid-19 variant throughout the state, including in the Bay Area. It is different than the strain detected in the United Kingdom. The new variant has been tied to several large outbreaks in Santa Clara County including one at Kaiser in San Jose.
Health officials want to stress they are studying the L452R variant closely with the CDC and the State Health Department since little is known. The main questions: How easily is it transmitted and will a vaccine be effective?
"Tonight we have collaborated with UC San Francisco and Santa Clara to let you know that again there is a variant L452R," said Dr. Erica Pan, California Department of Public Health's epidemiologist.
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State and local health officials announced Sunday a new COVID-19 variant. It had first been detected in Denmark last March and in Alameda County in November but was very rare.
Now, it’s being found at increasing rates in several counties throughout California including San Francisco and Santa Clara.
"We have had a number of large outbreaks and this variant has been identified in those outbreaks," said Santa Clara County Public Health Officer Dr. Cody on Sunday.
Cody said one of those outbreaks was at Kaiser in San Jose, that’s sickened more than 70 staffers, infected 15 patients and one person has died.
Cody said the health department is still trying to determine the variant’s role in that outbreak.
"Whether these outbreaks are behaving because of the virus or because some other condition, we don’t know," said Cody. "This is a very important signal to us that we have to lean in and do a lot more investigating."
Cody said so far, there is no indication the variant is associated with an increased severity of the illness.
Dr. Charles Chiu of UCSF conducts genomic sequencing essentially fingerprinting for variances of the virus.
His latest findings is the new variant went from being found in nearly four percent of cases to 25 percent in less than a month.
"This is why it's concerning that we have a variant that was actually pretty uncommon prior to early December, since then is roughly 25 percent of all the cases that we're sequencing," said Chiu.
It’s unknown how infectious this variant is and where it’s located in a critical region of the virus may affect its efficacy to the vaccine.
"With all mutations in that particular region, there is a concern will there be or is there an effect on the vaccine," said Chiu.