Race to Vaccinate Increases as COVID-19 Virus Mutates Again

New variants of COVID-19 are popping up all across the globe, including here in the United States.

In the Bay Area, a new variant of the novel coronavirus dubbed L45sR has been linked to multiple outbreaks and is distinctly different from a highly-infectious variant discovered in the United Kingdom. The variant discovered in California is the same as one seen in Denmark, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Not much is yet known about this particular COVID-19 variant, but Charles Chiu, a virologist and professor of laboratory medicine at the University of California at San Francisco told the Chronicle it has mutations to the spike-shaped protein that the coronavirus uses to infect cells. It is unknown whether the mutations on the protein spikes will make it less susceptible to the two mRNA vaccines rolling out across the United States. It’s also unknown if the mutations make this particular variant any more infectious than the original variant that swept across California. The L45sR variant has been linked to an outbreak at a Kaiser Permanente medical facility in the Bay Area that led to the infection of nearly 100 people. It’s believed the fan in an inflatable Christmas costume worn by a staff member may have caused the spread of that variant.

The same variant is now appearing in the Los Angeles area. The Atlantic noted L45sR has been discovered in multiple areas across California. If the L45sR strain is discovered to be more resistant to the vaccine, it could potentially lead to new lockdowns across the state and the rest of the country.

Concerns about this particular strain have been amplified due to the potentially more contagious U.K. variant, B.1.1.7., which was discovered at the end of 2020. B.1.1.7 had previously made its way through San Diego and San Bernardino counties, The Atlantic reported. That strain was first known to have appeared in Colorado and has also spread to other states across the country, including Florida and Georgia.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the new U.K. version could become the dominant strain in the United States by March. The belief that it spreads more easily than the existing variants in the U.S. leads the CDC to believe there will be an increase in hospitalizations.

Last week, BioSpace reported that researchers at Ohio State University discovered a new strain in the U.S. that has mutations not yet seen.

In Germany, a new variant was identified at a Bavarian hospital. Little is known about this particular variant and it has been sent to laboratories in Berlin for additional research, Politico reported. This new variant led to the infection of more than 70 people at a hospital in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a Bavarian ski town.

As the coronavirus continues to infect millions across the globe, researchers predict there will continue to be mutations in the virus. The more hosts the virus has, the more chances there are for it to mutate, scientists told the Associated Press. With the rise of new variants, the World Health Organization is urging increased efforts to identify these variants in order to curb more infections. Other variants have been discovered in South Africa and Brazil.

There have been more than 95 million cases of COVID-19 reported across the globe, with more than 2 million related deaths. The United States has the highest number of reported infections with 24,079,204, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard. The U.S. is poised to see a death toll of more than 400,000 this week. The U.S., like so many other countries, is racing to vaccinate as many people as possible in order to curb the viral surge.