The hunt for COVID-19 genomes that could worsen pandemic
The highly contagious new strain of COVID-19 that’s spreading throughout the United Kingdom may now be coursing through the U.S.
The challenge is finding it.
Unlike the UK, America has not yet fully harnessed the power of genomics to quickly detect important changes in the virus that could alter the trajectory of the pandemic ravaging the country.
“We’re working blind,” with insufficient screening to know how prevalent the strain is, said Dr. Charles Chiu of UC San Francisco, whose lab is collaborating with the state’s Department of Public Health to seek the new variant, called B.1.1.7., in viral samples among recent UK travelers in many California counties.
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But of the more than 19 million COVID-19 cases officially reported in the United States, just 58,500, or 0.3 percent, have been genetically analyzed for variants, according to the latest data from a centralized database.
Read more: https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/01/03/the-hunt-for-covid-19-genomes-that-could-worsen-pandemic/
(San Jose Mercury News)