Second Suspect UK Variant COVID Case In Simla Colorado

[niman]

Both the confirmed case and the suspected instance involve men who had been working at the Good Samaritan Society assisted living facility in Simla, about 45 miles northeast of Colorado Springs, county health director Dwayne Smith told CNN.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/30/health/colorado-uk-coronavirus-variant/index.html

[niman]

Colorado officials suspect they've found a second case of UK coronavirus variant

By Joe Sutton and Jason Hanna, CNN

 

Updated 9:59 AM ET, Wed December 30, 2020

Health officials in a Colorado county believe they've found a second local case of a coronavirus variant from the United Kingdom -- one that experts have said may be especially contagious -- a county public health director said Wednesday.

That news comes a day after the first known case of the variant in the US was announced in Colorado's Elbert County.

Both the confirmed case and the suspected instance involve men who had been working at the Good Samaritan Society assisted living facility in Simla, about 45 miles northeast of Colorado Springs, county health director Dwayne Smith told CNN.

Neither are residents of Elbert County, and they are isolating outside the county, Smith said. There is "no indication at this point" that this event has gone beyond the facility and into the larger community, he said.

The first patient had no known travel history, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Tuesday. In part because of that, there is a good chance the variant has been spreading within the community, William Haseltine, chair and president of the global health think tank ACCESS Health International, told CNN Wednesday.

The variant emerged in the UK in September, and US health officials have said in recent days as it became prevalent in the United Kingdom that it is probably already in the United States.

The state health department has been in communication with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about both cases. Smith did not know when the variant could be verified or ruled out definitively in the second person, he said. He was not able to comment on travel history for the men and said the state health department notified the county about the two men on Tuesday afternoon.

The "two individuals were working at the facility in non-clinical roles," and "were working at the facility due to staffing shortages from a prior Covid-19 outbreak at the facility, so they were not regular staff," Smith said. "The state health department has deployed a rapid response team to the assisted living facility in Simla to test residents and staff."

CNN has sought comment from the Good Samaritan Society.

The Good Samaritan Society had a Covid-19 outbreak in the past two and a half weeks, and at least two people -- a 93-year-old man and an 88-year-old woman -- died, Smith said. A third death is being investigated, he said. The facility is home to about 25 residents.

Scientists advising the UK government have estimated the variant could be up to 70% more effective at spreading than others. Scientists were "confident" the new variant is "spreading faster than other virus variants," Peter Horby, chair of the UK's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, said last week.

Health authorities from around the world have said the UK variant, though believed to be more easily spread, does not appear to be more deadly than previously identified Covid-19 strains. Many countries have banned flights from the United Kingdom, and the CDC recently announced passengers from London to the United States will need a negative coronavirus test from the previous 72 hours.

[niman]

Member of National Guard was first confirmed case of variant in U.S.

The individual was deployed to a nursing home in Simla. Another potential case of the variant was also announced in another member of the National Guard.

Author: Caitlin Hendee

Published: 7:32 AM MST December 30, 2020

Updated: 12:20 PM MST December 30, 2020

COLORADO, USA — The individual state health officials identified as the U.S.'s first confirmed case of the COVID-19 variant was a member of the National Guard working at a nursing home in Simla, state health officials announced during a Wednesday news conference.

The news conference came after Colorado leaders on Tuesday announced that a man in Elbert County, where Simla is located, was infected with the COVID-19 variant that was previously reported in the United Kingdom. That was the first confirmed case of the variant in the U.S., according to health officials.

The Colorado Dept. of Public Health & Environment's (CPDHE) State Epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said they also identified an additional possible case of the B 1.1.7 variant among another member of the National Guard. 

Both individuals were deployed to assist at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Simla, which is located about 80 driving miles southeast of Denver. Herlihy said the nursing home recently experienced a COVID-19 outbreak where 26 individuals tested positive and four people died.

Both individuals began their deployment at the nursing home on Dec. 23 and were tested Dec. 24, Herlihy said. 

Herlihy said neither had a history of travel and that investigators are working to determine if they contracted the variant from a person at the nursing home or prior to their arrival there. She said a team deployed Tuesday is collecting samples from residents through Wednesday and that, so far, they have not found the variant in the samples collected, with testing "ongoing."

"It's important to note that the National Guard personnel didn't arrive until Dec. 23... and that was after cases associated with outbreak occurred," Herlihy said.

Both members of the National Guard are isolating, one at a home in Arapahoe County and another at a hotel in Lincoln County, Herlihy said. They will quarantine for 14 days with daily quarantine monitoring conducted.

Vaccination distribution plan changes

Coloradans age 70 and older will join frontline workers in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine as many parts of the state move to Phase 1 B of the rollout plan, Gov. Jared Polis also said during the news conference.

The previous plan said all Coloradans age 65 or older were included in Phase 2 of the vaccination distribution plan.

Polis said the reason for the shift is due to the increased risk of death for people in that age group — more than 78% of COVID-19 deaths in the state are among adults age 70 and older.

"Any Coloradan 70 and up can now legally receive the vaccine," Polis said. "This will take about 4-5 weeks."

Phase 1 B also includes:

• Healthcare workers with less direct contact with COVID-19 patients (home health, hospice, pharmacy, dental, etc.)
• EMS
• Firefighters
• Police
• COVID-19 response personnel
• Correctional workers
• Funeral services.

Polis also said that the state will work with employers to create targeted vaccine distribution plans for additional frontline workers as part of Phase 1 B, such as in those who work in education, food and agriculture, public health, transportation or who provide support to those experiencing homelessness, as well as grocery store workers.

https://www.9news.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/colorado-covid-governor-update-after-confirmed-variant/73-721d76ce-d1fd-4cd7-9f43-7238fdbb913e

[niman]

https://facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=360&width=640&referrer=www.twitter.com&share_id&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fjaredpolis%2Fvideos%2F1622822051256882%2F

[niman]

Colorado UK Variant COVID Cluster - 2 confirmed and 12 S dropouts

https://recombinomics.co/thedrnimanshow/2020/12/123020colorado.mp3

Edited December 30, 2020 by niman

[niman]

S-variant SARS-CoV-2 is associated with significantly higher viral loads in samples tested by ThermoFisher TaqPath RT-QPCR

 View ORCID ProfileMichael Kidd, Alex Richter, Angus Best, Jeremy Mirza, Benita Percival, Megan Mayhew, Oliver Megram, Fiona Ashford, Thomas White, Emma Moles-Garcia, Liam Crawford, Andrew Bosworth, Tim Plant, Alan McNally

doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.24.20248834

 

Abstract

Birmingham University Turnkey laboratory is part of the Lighthouse network responsible for testing clinical samples under the UK government ‘Test & Trace’ scheme. Samples are analysed for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in respiratory samples using the Thermofisher TaqPath RT-QPCR test, which is designed to co-amplify sections of three SARS-CoV-2 viral genes.

Since more recent information became available regarding the presence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (S-VoC), which can show a suboptimal profile in RT-QPCR tests such as the ThermoFisher TaqPath used at the majority of Lighthouse laboratories, we analysed recently published data for trends and significance of the S-gene ‘dropout’ variant.

Results showed that:

1. the population of S-gene dropout samples had significantly lower median Ct values of ORF and N-gene targets compared to samples where S-gene was detected

2. on a population basis, S-gene dropout samples clustered around very low Ct values for ORF and N targets

3. linked Ct values for individual samples showed that a low Ct for ORF and N were clearly associated with an S-dropout characteristic

4. when conservatively inferring relative viral load from Ct values, approximately 35% of S-dropout samples had high viral loads between 10 and 10,000-fold greater than 1 × 10⁶, compared to 10% of S-positive samples.

This analysis suggests that patients whose samples exhibit the S-dropout profile in the TaqPath test are more likely to have high viral loads at the time of sampling. The relevance of this to epidemiological reports of fast spread of the SARS-CoV-2 in regions of the UK is discussed.

 

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.24.20248834v1.full.pdf+html