First case of Covid-19 variant in US is a National Guard member at Colorado nursing home
Second possible case involving another National Guard service member also discovered
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Your support makes all the difference.A Colorado patient confirmed to have the first US case of the highly contagious UK variant of the coronavirus is a National Guard service member supporting a nursing home in the state, health officials said on Wednesday.
A second possible case of the B117 Covid-19 variant has also been identified in another service member deployed to the same care center, roughly 45 miles from Colorado Springs.
The Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Simla has endured a recent outbreak of infections; 26 residents have tested positive, and four people have died. More than two-thirds of regular staff has also tested positive.
National Guard members were deployed to the facility on 23 December and tested on 24 December. Both patients are in isolation; neither have travelled internationally within recent weeks, suggesting there is community spread of the virus that has not been previously detected.
The variant – a common development as a virus replicates through transmission – has attracted international attention and caution as officials warn that the Covid-19-carrying variant is more contagious than other viruses, underscoring the urgency of vaccine distribution.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced the first confirmed US case in the state on Tuesday. Officials have reported the variant in more than a dozen countries.
On Tuesday, President-elect Joe Biden condemned Donald Trump’s response to the public health crisis as the nation’s death toll exceeds 340,000 lives lost to Covid-19-related illness, with nearly 20 million confirmed infections, with record-breaking daily hospitalisations.
He said the administration’s plan to distribute vaccines “is falling behind, far behind,” with less than 3 million people receiving their first doses of a two-part vaccine in the final days of 2020.
“At the pace the vaccination program is moving now, it would take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people,” president-elect Biden said in remarks from Delaware.
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