More contagious, troublesome South African virus variant found in U.S. for 1st time
COLUMBIA, South Carolina -- The United States’ first known cases of the more contagious and troublesome South African coronavirus variant have been detected in two people in South Carolina, the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control said.
The department said “there is no known travel history and no connection between these two cases.”
Both cases are among adults, one who is from the Lowcountry and one who is from the Pee Dee region, according to South Carolina health officials.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it's aware of the cases and it "recommends that people avoid travel at this time."
The B.1.351 South African variant has been identified in more than 30 countries, the South Carolina officials said.
"Experts agree that existing vaccines work to protect us from this variant, even if we don’t know precisely how effective they are," the department added. "At this time, there’s no evidence to suggest that the B.1.351 variant causes more severe illness."
On Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News' "Good Morning America" that the South African variant "troubles" him.
Fauci said lab experiments show the neutralizing antibodies induced by existing Covid-19 vaccines are "diminished by multi-fold" when tested against the South Africa variant.
"It's still within the range of what you would predict to be protective," he added, "but I take no great comfort in that."
However, scientists are already working on vaccines that will specifically target the South Africa variant, according to Fauci.
"May not be necessary," he said, "but if it is we'll already be on the road to be able to give people a boost that directs against the South African isolate."
