B.1.621 variant: Another coronavirus variant has reached Florida. Here's what you need to know.

[Eugene]

Earlier DU thread: New Coronavirus Variant from Colombia Found In Florida

Also: Colombian COVID variant already spreading in South Florida (WPLG-TV)

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Source: Washington Post

Another coronavirus variant has reached Florida. Here’s what you need to know.

By Lateshia Beachum
Yesterday at 3:00 p.m. EDT

A coronavirus variant discovered in Colombia is showing up among patients in South Florida, increasing infections and putting health officials on alert as calls grow louder for unvaccinated individuals to get inoculated.

Carlos Migoya, CEO of Jackson Health System, told WPLG in Miami earlier this week that the B.1.621 variant has accounted for about 10 percent of coronavirus patients, trailing behind delta, the now-dominant variant in the United States that has been ravaging the nation’s unvaccinated, and the gamma variant. B.1.621 has yet to receive a Greek-letter designation as more prominent variants have.

Migoya told the news station that he speculated B.1.621 is rising in South Florida because of international travel between Colombia and Miami, which serves as a gateway to Latin America.

A person who replied to an email sent from The Washington Post to Migoya’s office said he was unavailable to comment.

Health experts will keep B.1.621 on their radar as the fall season looms and as parts of the country still lag in their vaccination efforts, experts told The Post.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/28/colombia-variant-coronavirus-florida/

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Source: WPLG-TV

Colombian COVID variant already spreading in South Florida

International travel to Miami makes us a gateway for new strains

Glenna Milberg, Reporter

Published: July 26, 2021 6:15 pm
Updated: July 27, 2021 9:36 am

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – The Colombian variant may sound like the next concern in the COVID-19 crisis, but in South Florida, it’s already here.

Carlos Migoya, CEO of Jackson Health, revealed that now 10% of COVID-positive patients whose results are being sequenced at the University of Miami’s pathology lab have a strain that originated out of Colombia.

“And here’s a real shocking thing that’s spreading in Colombia quite a bit,” Migoya told Local 10 News. “And they haven’t seen it anywhere else outside of Colombia. Well, guess what? In the last week, 10% of our patients had the Colombian variant. Why? Because of the travel between Colombia and Miami.”

That sequencing lab reports the following percentages of variant cases among COVID positives:

• Delta 49%
• Brazilian 26%
• Colombian 10%

What’s colloquially being called the Colombian variant is officially the B.1.621 variant. It has not yet been given a Greek name by the World Health Organization (like the Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma).

-snip-

Read more: https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/07/26/colombian-covid-variant-already-spreading-in-south-florida/

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. Just damn.

[appalachiablue]

2. Very hard times, stay safe

[scipan]

3. WaPo says it has been around since January.

So it's not super transmissible? Unless it mutates to something else of course.

[NH Ethylene]

4. A little detail about B.1.621

Katherine Laiton-Donato and colleagues in Colombia have now sequenced a new highly divergent variant, with mutations including Spike substitutions L249S and E484K.

These two substitutions are thought to be associated with immune escape. The presence of E484K is especially believed to be responsible for resisting antibodies from convalescent blood plasma. These two mutations are associated with the B.1.1.28 and B.1.351 lineages (the Brazilian and South African variants, respectively), two variants of concern.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210316/New-Colombian-SARS-CoV-2-lineage-shares-antibody-resistant-mutations-with-other-variants.aspx